Tucson Thefts
 

Please copy and post on any website that might be interested in this information

The Tucson Police in conjunction with several adjoining agencies has been conducting an ongoing investigation involving the theft, parting out and selling of import vehicles. Originally we were hoping for a clear end to the investigation at which point we would release the results, but that is not the going to happen. To this date there have been numerous arrests of persons involved in these cases. (I'm taking the names out for now, they appeared to get all the attention. I would rather people read the issues below them.)

We are tracking down property that all of these individuals had control over or sold. If you are in control of property that came from these people you want to contact us. There is no better time than now to contact us with any suspicious property. I cannot tell you what is going to happen, each case is different.

I through this investigation have found that this problem is not going to be solved by arrests alone. These cars are too easy to steal, part out, and resell. You can have far more impact on this problem than we can have. Here is a list of idea’s that at the very least will not hurt.
1. Make a list of all your part on your vehicle. Almost everything is marked in some manor. If you have parts numbers each individual part can be entered into the system as stolen.
2. Spend money on security for your car. Layer your security, start with the easy and visible steering wheel locking type device. A car alarm is good, while they don’t get the attention anymore it often wakes the victim up. Get a kill switch of some sort. Spend the money on this first to protect what you are going to put in the car.
3. Equip the vehicle with LoJack type tracking device.

Next big improvement that needs to be made is with websites. In any sales or buy thread the administrators should consider requiring at a minimum part numbers. It should take very little extra time for a person to list a VIN number, engine number, radio number etc. Also consider making photo’s a requirement. Almost everyone has access to a camera phone at the very least. This will make it very easy for a victim to search for his/her parts. There are obviously other ways to sell the parts but the harder you make it on thieves the less they are going to be doing this. Almost all of the people you see on the list above did what they did because it was easy and profitable. The harder you make it on them the less it is going to happen. There are certain people that we are never going to stop except with long jail sentences, but let us work on that.

As a community you have to decide if you are going to tolerate thieves. What I mean by that is during interviews with people they brought up the fact that certain subjects are known thieves. The victims/witnesses give two main reasons for not coming forward, they were scared or they did not want to be ‘narc’s’. If you start turning people in you can make the thieves be the ones that are scared, not the other way around. A quick overview of ‘narc’s’ that is a drug world term for a person that is involved in drug dealing/using that turns in another dealer almost always for their own personal gain. If you are not involved in stealing cars then it’s not ‘narcing’ on someone to alert authorities.

Another large issue has come up with the lack of knowledge involving VIN laws. All laws are available online. One thing to keep in mind is that the VIN is the vehicle. If it cannot be registered than the vehicle has no value, the parts might be worth something but not the vehicle. YOU CANNOT remove any identifying features on the vehicle yourself. And when I say CANNOT I mean that it is a felony if you do. There are NO exceptions to this. If you want to swap a dash or do something that requires the removal of a VIN you have to contact an MVD inspector who will walk you through the procedure. This includes the federal label on the door, the public VIN plate, any secondary stamped VIN’s and on some transmissions their on VIN plates on the transmission.

Know the background on your vehicle. If you buy it make sure the sellers name is on the title. Consider doing the transaction at MVD or a third party business to make sure that everything is okay right then and there and put it in your name. If your going to put a lot of money into the car consider changing the door locks and ignition. Its not that expensive and buying a used car you have no idea how many copies of the keys have been made.

If you buy a U.S.D.M. motor remember it came out of a car. Find out all the information you can on what car it came out of. I recommend getting a copy of the title that engine originally belonged to. Make sure the sellers information is on that title, at a minimum hand written on the title.

These are just some of the issues that have come up. Please discuss this amongst yourselves and contact me with questions. I do not have time to read all the reply’s to this.

I am always available for questions or comments. Best way to get ahold of me is email, . You can leave a message for me at 520-791-4499 ex. 1738.

Good stuff

:clapper: I like that even with all these investigations, you take the time to come on here and fill us all in! Everyone is so sick of thieves and its only getting worse here in phx. Hope these arrests lead to convictions "Death by firing squad"

Not everyone on the list is guilty or being charged with car theft or traficking of stolen parts. 3 of us are on the list for VIN infractions. Other than the wording of this post, I support what TPD is doing 100%.

I like how they were nice enough to consider us, As well as being very courteous in their language

bump

good stuff

The bullshit over the VIN is just that BULLSHIT. Seeing my name plastered up here is about the LOWEST thing that TPD has done to date. Even after the BOGUS arrest. And while it does say these are only arrests, NOT CONVICTIONS, it trully is a conviction. I havn't had the most squeeky clean past, BUT I have spent the better part of this DECADE restoring my own personal guilt. This is a conviction in every sense of the word. It lies in the court of public opinion. People who are my friends, potential customers, and even enemys can all see this, and unfortunately, it has convicted me already. What ever happend to innoncent until proven guilty???

Our case's are still pending, and therefore, WE ARE INNOCENT!

I agree that we, as a community need to (no pun intended) collectively put an end to providing means for these thieves to continue thier "trade". We know who they are, and Det. Simmers is correct, we can no longer be afraid to "out" them. Most of the known thieves are already being dealt with, but any new information should be reported.

this is good for the import community!!!

i appreciate the police being on here

garbage, they should put more efforts into stopping drug dealers and meth heads or dirty fence hoppers. Wa$te of $$$$

are you kidding?!!

rly EVERYONE has to pay the price cause of it.

do you have insurance? do you pay a hefty price for a fucking honda. thats prly cause of shit like this.

if your car is stolen do you want the pd to say. waste of money not going to waste our time.


do you relize how much money is lost every year due to auto theft. and in the end. it comes out of everyones pocket.

lol 120$ for full coverage doesn't bother me much.
I dont pay a hefty Price for my "fucking honda"

if your car does get stolen, the cops dont look for it, people usually call because of stripped or dumped cars. Then the cops call you.

Do YOU REALIZE HOW MANY JOBS ARE LOST OR LIVES ARE LOST DUE TO SMUGGLING ILLEGALS INTO THIS COUNTRY. probably not because its not out of your pocket haha:doobie:

Be smart with your alarms, Get LoJack, put anti theft deturrents like taking the ecu out or a detachable steering wheel. But there will always be car theifs in the honda/acura world its unstoppable

120 for a 89 civic?

you dont find that a lil high?

and yes I do relize about drugs and illegals. but the topic was stolen cars.

if you want to go that route. how many people that are stealing cars do you think are illegals? or maybe high on drugs and need to make money to get there next fix?

i didnt see no cop trying to get my street bike back after it was stolen and it was right infront of there fuckin face. me- hey that guy is riding my stolen street bike. cop- ok we will take care of it. then they just left. bike goes off into the night and never seen again.
guy openly admitted that he bought the bike for 800 with no title from a friend lol. my pipes, my power commander, my same flush mount blinkers, and 500 more miles on it then what it had when it was stolen. and the key in the ignition wasnt the factory key. hmmmm a cop couldnt take the time to check the vin.

me paying 350 a month for the bike and 350 for full coverage jus to get fucked. its been well over a year and the bike still hasnt been payed for by insurance, every excuse not to pay for it has come up. all this could of been done by now if the cop would of done his fuckin job.

I hear stories like that all the time.

To be honest, I think more money should be spent on catching drunk drivers. If a car is stolen, it's not the owners fault but there were security measures they could have taken to prevent it. When an innocent family is killed by a drunk driver, there is nothing they could have done. There are no sensors they can install on their car to let them know what is about to happen, absolutely no warning except headlights at the last second. Sure, having a car stolen can be sad, and a slight inconvenience, but in most cases insurance has you a rental car the next day and life goes on(even though insurance may dick you around for months). When a single person is killed by a drunk driver, it affects their family, their friends, co workers, etc.

That’s just my $.02 though

Kudos to the TPD for doing what they are doing though, I'm sure it will give some people peace of mind.

Good to see cops are in here to actually attempt to slow this theft down....it will never stop but at least they may put a dent in it.

idk what your insurance has to do with this. the problem of them not paying it off has nothing to do with this.

and you saying that about the cops. yea that might have happend. but again what does that have to do with this.

this just shows that they are trying to make a attempt at it now.

seeing how you got fucked i would think you would be happy that they are trying to do something.

this just got better

x2 i always tell people i try to do as much as i can now cuz i cant expect to live and get old. never know when im gonna be driving home and get hit and die from somebody elses stupidity of being way to drunk to be in a driver seat. so many close fuckin calls. if someone cant handle being out and drinking, than stay the fuck home.

x2 ^

WOW thats shitty.. Cops are fuck heads most the time..

yeah your right, tuscon is making an attempt, good for them. what about phoenix? i just decided id throw in my useless story about my street bike, that was stolen, and cops here in phoenix not doing there job and the full coverage i payed on my bike jus to get hassled and harassed. so good for tuscon! cuz not a fuckin thing is being done in phoenix, or atleast that anyone can see is making a difference.

when i first saw the screen name i thought it was a prank, now that ive read what this is all about i think its a small step towards preventing car thefts. atleast its a start in the right direction

maybe phx will start too.

they said they are working with other agencies. for all we know phx is doing the same thing.

i remember hearing of a few raids not to long ago.

Wow. I dont know you, or anything about you.

But.

I dont know anything about or know OJ Simpson either.


Good Luck

lol ^

hahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahaaa

glad to see TPD filling us in with some more info, please keep up the work. all these peeps on here talking about how they hate theives and a detective makes a infromative post and most ya'll start hating. all i can say is wow. also giving me more reasons to not trust any tucson shops.

Trust who you want, believe what you want. Like the detective said, reserve judgement until you find information about the specific cases yourself.

Not everyone listed on this thread is guilty or charged with auto theft.

i will, do that scott but that was not a atttack towrward u and it has nothing to do with your name bein all over this post. there is no need for bickering in this post PM me and ill be more than happy to explain my comment. some people are not able to trust many with ease.