Car thefts nosedive, but pros still in business

The tipoff was a phony license plate.

Police stopped the car bearing the plate as it was being driven around the Port of Wilmington. Further investigation revealed a bunch of cars missing from a high-fenced lot where cars are stored before or after shipping, and alarm bells went off. The January 1991 discovery led to Wilmington and state police breaking up a quarter-million-dollar stolen car ring, arresting five men and recovering at least 17 autos.

Stolen cars and trucks were once a regular feature in the pages of newspapers across the nation. But the thefts don't seem to generate many headlines these days unless connected with another incident. Stolen car rings still exist, and joyriders still steal unlocked cars with keys left inside. But overall vehicle theft has fallen dramatically over the past two decades – both in Delaware, the surrounding states and across the country.

Delaware alone has seen a 55 percent reduction since 1995, slightly better than the 52.5 percent drop nationwide. The 2,970 vehicles reported stolen in the state that year plummeted to 1,332 in 2013, the most recent year for which figures are available. The reductions are even greater in neighboring states, in New Jersey vehicle thefts have fallen 72.6 percent, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.

The reasons, police say, are largely related to technology: newer vehicles remotely unlocked with electronic signals are harder to break into, and easier to track.

"Manufacturers are making cars harder to steal," said Chris McDonold, a former Baltimore County Police officer and now deputy director of the Maryland Vehicle Theft Prevention Council.

"Different carmakers are coming out with the chip key now, which is kind of a big deterrent," said Cpl. Kenneth Anderson, a property detective with the Delaware State Police. "You need that little connection there to get the fuel pump and all of it to work on the vehicle. They aren't as easy to steal as an older car."

Technical advances also allow police to check at high speed the unique identification numbers known as VINs that are assigned to each new vehicle in every state – establishing in milliseconds whether a suspect vehicle has been reported stolen, McDonold said.

At the same time, much older cars and their parts are starting to become obsolete and lose their value, making common street car theft increasingly unprofitable. For some thieves, though, there is a sweet spot in the used car market: the Honda Accord, particularly the mid-to-late 1990s models.

The Accord is the most-stolen car in the U.S. The top three in Delaware, according to 2012 data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, are the 2000 Honda Civic, the 1996 Honda Accord and the 1995 Ford full-size pickup.

"Those were popular cars," said Capt. Stephen Jones of the New Jersey State Police. "They're easy to steal."

There's a market for more expensive vehicles. Those 1990s Hondas, however, are not only easier targets than newer vehicles. They also contain parts valued by street racers.

"Locally, we have particular groups, usually a certain age bracket, 17 to 25, and they're interested in a very particular model car," said Col. Elmer Setting, chief of the New Castle County Police, who said mid-1990s Honda Civics are popular targets. "They're usually [street] race groups. They need those parts ... to build and keep and retread their race cars."

Just as in western states from Texas to Montana, where the top three most-stolen vehicles are all pickup trucks, vehicle thefts in southern Delaware reflect local popularity. And as the weather warms, that spells all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, and the golf carts and motorcycles that are so popular in more rural Sussex County, Anderson said.

"There's a lot of communities down there that use golf carts to get around," Anderson said. "If they're not properly secured and put away, in a locked shed or garage or something – a lot of times, people just cover them up in their back yard – somebody just walks over there and takes it, and they just push it away."

Those aren't limited to Sussex. "I have more shed burglaries than I have vehicle thefts," Setting said. "Because you take the ATV to wherever, and sell it – most people don't have the tracking, they didn't register the vehicles. Unfortunately, that's part of the problem. So they're hard to track. They're an easy sell."

New kind of thefts

Stealing cars and moving them up I-95 to Philadelphia was once a staple of New Castle County crime.

"They would jump the fence at the Port of Wilmington, and they would take the Jeeps that were headed overseas," said Setting, who recalled helping break up such a ring long ago. "And they would jump in the first Jeep - because the keys are in 'em - and they would smash into the fence with the first Jeep. And once the fence was down, five guys would jump in five Jeeps, drive 'em to Philadelphia and you'd get about $3,000 a Jeep."

Now, that's become less lucrative – at least, domestically. "You take that $50,000 car to a chop shop in Philly, they know they're receiving a stolen car," Setting said. "So they're only going to give you 5,000 bucks."

There's bigger money, other regional police officials say, in quickly moving stolen vehicles – particularly luxury models – to Canada, Mexico or even overseas.

"More and more, cars are a commodity that are valuable," said Steven Wheeler, a former police chief and executive director of the Pennsylvania Auto Theft Authority. "Particularly in Africa and even the Eastern European market, you see the high-end cars being stolen here. ... And that's organized criminal activity. There's clearly groups of criminals that know what they're doing, they have the connections in those foreign countries. And they run those scams."

"Most auto theft today is professional, organized groups," McDonold said. These thieves, he said, make quick work of a stolen car.

"They put it in a shipping container and ship it overseas," he said. Officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey said they see the same trend. He said the rings have different roots but have in common access to money and technical expertise, such as cloning VINs to make them appear legitimate.

"Some of the rings will be stealing those cars from various lots, rental lots or parking garages, where the keys and the vehicles are both accessible," said Jones. "And then because GPS is in so many vehicles now, a lot of times what they're doing is either quickly trying to dismantle them, or even run them onto containers."

Jones' department has traced stolen luxury vehicles to West Africa. During 2013-2014's Operation Jacked, about 160 stolen cars worth more than $8 million were recovered, Jones said. Twenty-seven of the vehicles, mostly luxury SUVs, were taken in carjackings. Carjackers were typically paid $4,000 to $8,000 by street-level fences, who then sold the cars to higher-ups.

Cars with cloned VINS are aimed at a less well-heeled market as well – "poor, innocent buyers," McDonold said. Such vehicles are also sold on Craigslist, he said.

Despite this organized crime activity, Wheeler said, those groups don't account for most stolen cars and trucks. "The prevalence of car theft is still targets of opportunity," he said.

Those targets make themselves inviting largely because they are unlocked, experts say.

"I'm glad winter's over," McDonold said, saying some drivers' behavior in cold weather can invite early-morning "jump-in" thefts. "Folks startin' their cars up in the morning, leaving the keys in them, and people hopping in there and stealing the cars," he said. Without locking, he said, "You're defeating all those anti-theft devices manufacturers have put on."

Leaving a just-started car to warm up was the No. 1 cause of stolen cars in New Castle County this past winter, Setting said. He said seven were reported in Richardson Park, near Elsmere, during one week last winter. Most, he said, were taken by teens looking for a warm ride to school; locking the cars would have prevented the thefts.

"We think about 50 percent of auto theft could be stopped, prevented, if people would just follow that simple rule," Wheeler said.

"You've eliminated the non-professional thief," McDonold said. "So you just can't pull up to a car, pop the ignition, steal it with a dent puller, a screwdriver or a butter knife, where you could in the past."

For some, however, that's a lifestyle hindrance. "It's a matter of convenience," Wheeler said. "And we live in a world where convenience is a premium."

Three steps will help most avoid vehicle theft, Wheeler said.

"Number one, lock it," he said. "Number two, take stuff out of the car that attracts attention." And, he added, "Park somewhere where it's well lighted."

Contact William H. McMichael at (302) 324-2812 or bmcmichael@delawareonline.com. On Twitter: @billmcmichael.