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Monday, June 18, 2007

Auto Thefts in Albuquerque Have Skyrocketed in the Past Year

By Jeff Proctor
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
   
Second in a two-day series
   
    By the time you read these stories, finish a second cup of coffee and head off to work, there's a good chance a car or truck will be stolen somewhere in the city.
    And, by the end of the day, 14 more vehicles will have disappeared from driveways, parking lots and streets across Albuquerque.
    Last year, 5,515 vehicles were stolen, according to police. That's a 45 percent increase from the 3,796 cars and trucks that were swiped in 2005.
    In fact, overall crime in the Duke City would be down— if not for the recent spike in stolen vehicles.
    The city ranked 13th out of 360 on the National Insurance Crime Bureau's list for stolen vehicles in 2006— up from 20th in 2005.
    The jump has been gnawing at Police Chief Ray Schultz.
    "Crime has grown, but only minimally compared to most major cities," Schultz said. "The larger cities have seen 15 to 20 percent increases; we were only up 4 percent, and that's mainly because of stolen cars."
    In an effort to slow the auto thieves' roll, APD is turning to new tactics.
   

Police are using an airplane to spot auto thieves in the mornings and "bait vehicles" to lure them at all times of the day and night.
   

Field investigators are being dispatched to all auto theft calls— and using improved fingerprinting and DNA techniques on recovered cars to catch offenders.
   

Authorities will soon be using license-plate readers to scan parking lots and other public areas for stolen vehicles.
    APD has had some success: Arrests were up from 59 in 2005 to 93 last year.
    But, overall, APD solved just 9 percent of auto thefts in 2006, below the national average of 13 percent.
   
Link to drugs
    Lt. Harold Prudencio, who oversees APD's property crimes unit, says the rise in stolen vehicles is no mystery. As methamphetamine use has skyrocketed, so has auto theft.
    "I would say about 90 percent of auto thefts are drug-related," Prudencio said, "and the majority of that is meth. It's all about money for meth."
    "If you steal a car, it's like pulling a slot machine," Chief Schultz said. "You never know what you're going to get. It could just be cash for the car, but you also might get a purse, a bunch of CDs, an iPod, or the information you need to steal someone's identity."
    Vehicles are stolen primarily to be sold for parts, driven south of the border and sold whole or used in the commission of other crimes, said APD Sgt. Louis Heckroth of the multi-agency Community Auto Theft Team.
    Some thieves will steal a vehicle and simply sell it for cash. A Ford F250 will sell for $250; an F350 will bring $350, Prudencio said.
    But others will take a vehicle to a chop shop, where fences pay for individual parts.
    There are fences all over Albuquerque, some in the East Mountains and others in Truth or Consequences, Prudencio said. Valencia County and areas to the south are seeing plenty of stolen vehicle action.
    "We also know a lot of cars are making it south of the border. There are organized groups out of Central and South America— as well as Mexico— that use stolen cars to smuggle narcotics and illegal aliens."
    Moreover, many thieves use stolen vehicles to commit burglaries, run drugs and transport illegal immigrants, Prudencio said.
    Alberto Lovato's case, according to police, was a perfect example of thieves stealing a car and using it to commit other crimes.
    Lovato's 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis was stolen in the early-morning hours of Jan. 22, police documents show. And, by the time police caught up with the 15-year-old who allegedly stole the car, the boy and an accomplice had been on a citywide stealing spree.
    Inside the car were knives, wallets and personal information from other victims.
    "My car was being used to pick up all the loot they were getting from all these other people," Lovato said.
    Many auto thieves work in groups of about five, Prudencio said. Using an already stolen vehicle, the driver will drop off the others to rip off more cars and trucks.
    Some smash windows, he said, others break locks or use Slim Jims.
    "And some of them will just roll the car away and load them onto a flat-bed truck," Prudencio said.
    So, who are these thieves and, more importantly, what neighborhoods are the most susceptible?
    "Most career thieves are in their late 20s to early 40s," said Prudencio. "There are some younger thieves on the West Side.
    "In terms of which parts of town are hit hardest, well, that tends to move around a lot. The one constant is that they tend to hit more middle-class neighborhoods where people are working a lot during the day."
    Comanche between Carlisle and San Mateo, and along Lomas between Carlisle and Wyoming saw the most auto thefts in 2006, according to APD.
   
Hard crime to solve
    Solving auto thefts is difficult, Prudencio said.
    "It's hard to gather evidence," he said. "You take somebody who can steal a car within 15 seconds— they don't leave a lot of evidence behind."
    Police can use DNA and fingerprint evidence, but that all depends on whether a vehicle is recovered.
    The most frustrating aspect of working the auto theft beat is the number of repeat offenders, Heckroth said.
    Heckroth, Prudencio and Detective Bill Webb of the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department don't have hard numbers, but they estimate that about 70 percent of the auto thieves they catch have done the deed on multiple occasions.
    "It's incredibly frustrating to be dealing with the same people over and over again," Webb said. "There are a number of individuals who we know are involved in organized auto theft. The DA's Office and the courts are just as frustrated as we are.
    "With the overpopulation in jails, there are only a certain number of people we can keep incarcerated for an extended period of time," he said.
    And with so many thieves out there, it's tough for police to keep up, Heckroth said.
    The multiagency team is composed of eight full-time officers, two wrecker drivers and two more working at APD's garage at the Valley Substation on Second NW.
    "Can we follow up on every one of our leads?" Heckroth said. "Well, no. We just don't have enough people. Each one of my guys has about 15 cases on his desk right now, and those are just the cases with active suspects."
    While many auto theft cases go unsolved, national insurance rates have not gone up as a result as you might think..
    "It would be highly unlikely that you would see a large increase in premiums because of auto theft problems," said Mike Barry, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute. "It would be barely detectable on an insurance bill."
   
Proactive measures
    As with other property crimes, officers go through statistics for the hardest-hit areas each month and decide what resources are needed to go after the thieves.
    Available resources include several new "proactive" techniques, the chief said.
    Officers fly APD's airplane in the mornings trying to spot auto thieves, which has netted several arrests.
    Police deploy "bait cars,"— leaving a vehicle with the keys in it, or something of value in plain view. Officers then stake out the car, waiting for a crook.
    "In fact, we used the bait vehicle this week," Schultz said during a recent interview. "It took all of 45 minutes before we had our first catch. The thief actually stole a car that was sitting right next to the bait vehicle."
    Authorities also use a database that links information from known offenders and crimes.
    In the next few months, police will have license plate scanners up and running that allow them to take the information from hundreds of license plates in a short period of time. The information will be sent through a database to match it against a list of stolen vehicles.
    The bottom line, he said, is that police are taking auto theft seriously. They want the crooks to know it— and they want you to know it, too.
    "We're not going to stop," Schultz said. "We're still out there every day, and we're going to catch these people."
   
List toppers
   
    The most stolen vehicles in Albuquerque for 2006:
    1. 1995 Ford 150
    2. 1992 Chevrolet Full Size CK1500 Pickup
    3. 1992 Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee
    4. 2004 Dodge Ram Pickup
    5. 1994 Honda Accord
    6. 1990 Toyota Camry
    7. 1993 Honda Civic
    8. 2000 Ford F250 Series
    9. 1999 Ford Ranger
    10. 2000 Pontiac Grand Am
   
Source: National Insurance Crime Bureau