Auto Theft News

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 14, 2010 - PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tommy L. Thompson, Jr., 48, of Indianapolis, Christopher Wells, 45, of Indianapolis, Francis W. Coleman, 41, of Laurel, Md., Carl E. McCreary, 48, of Frisco City, Ala., and Fred D. Bear, Jr., 39, of Avon, Ind., were indicted in connection with an auto theft ring that allegedly stole more than 80 vehicles valued in excess of $1 million dollars. This indictment follows their arrests on Dec. 28, 2009 on a complaint filed in district court.

This indictment is the result of a seven-months long investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Indiana State Police with assistance by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Greenfield Police Department, Shelbyville Police Department, Lawrence Police Department, Muncie Police Department, Greensburg Police Department, Fishers Police Department, Clarksville Police Department, Kokomo Police Department, Brownsburg Police Department, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Alabama Department of Safety and Alabama Bureau of Investigation.

The indictment alleges that in June 2006, Christopher Wells and Francis Coleman entered into an agreement to steal motor vehicles and use counterfeit motor vehicle titles and counterfeit vehicle identification numbers to fool state title authorities into thinking the stolen vehicles were not stolen, and could be legally sold. Wells and Coleman were purportedly joined by Thompson and McCreary in or about April 2007, and all four participated until their arrest on Dec. 29, 2009. Bear allegedly participated from March 2008 through September 2009. In furtherance of this scheme, the defendants utilized the U.S. Postal Service and Federal Express to send and receive the counterfeit documents.

According to the indictment, Coleman, Wells, Thompson and others would steal motor vehicles from both within and outside of the Southern District of Indiana. They would then locate vehicles of an identical make and model in Canada and copy those vehicles' vehicle identification number (VIN). Coleman would create counterfeit Washington, D.C., or North Carolina motor vehicle titles and VIN stickers bearing the Canadian vehicles' information. Coleman would then either drive or ship the counterfeit documents to Wells in Indianapolis, where Wells, Thompson and others would clone the vehicles. After the vehicles were cloned, either Bear or McCreary would receive the vehicles for sale.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley P. Shepard, who is prosecuting the case for the government, all are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and each faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Thompson remains in custody and the remaining defendants are on pre-trial release.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
RELATED LINKS: http://www.justice.gov

From James Muñoz - KENS Channel 5
June 10th, 2009

Stolen tractor-trailers are hard to recover, unless you know what you are looking for. In Comal County, the sheriff's department recovers about 100 stolen tractor-trailers every year. Every week, authorities confiscate two stolen tractor-trailers along I-35 in Comal County. On Tuesday (June 9, 2009), detectives intercepted a stolen trailer from Canada.

Detective John Bailey (Travis Co. Sheriffs' Combined Auto Theft Task Force) said crooks steal trailers all the time, then change the serial numbers and use the trailers to make money. The 42,000 pounds of mangoes found inside one stolen trailer had to be picked up by another truck.

"Well, now I have their trailer, and I have their mangoes. What they had to do is they ended up having to pay another broker to come and haul their load. Plus the Department of Agriculture had to come out, since it came in from another country. So it's quite an expense to them, " Bailey said.

So the long arm of the law is always watching I-35 through New Braunfels. And Bailey is always teaching other officers how to spot stolen tractor-trailers.

"We're trying to educate other officers, to get them more familiar. The more eyes out there looking for this type of thing, then hopefully the less profitable it will be for the guys that deal with this," he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the on-line availability of the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) as of January 30, 2009, to help protect states and consumers from automobile fraud and to provide law enforcement with new tools to investigate fraud, theft, and other vehicle crimes. Please find the press release and fact sheet below.

►TRUCKS ARE TEXAS THIEVES' TOP PICK IN 2008
(Compiled from the 2008 Texas DPS MVT 19 Reports)

The Texas Department of Public Safety has released its final MVT19 report on the top vehicles reported stolen in Texas during 2008, and as has been the case for several years, pickups held the top spots. The Ford pickup came in at No. 1, and coming in at a close No. 2 is the Chevrolet Pickup. In the No. 3 position, the Dodge Pickup remained a popular target for Texas thieves. Rounding out the top five is the Honda Accord and Honda Civic. The complete top ten list includes:

►TEXAS AUTO THEFT DECLINES IN 2007
(Compiled from the 2007 "Crime in Texas" Texas DPS Uniform Crime Report)

The Texas Department of Public Safety recently released the official "2007 Crime in Texas" uniform crime report. The report shows that in 2007, 95,750 vehicles were stolen in Texas - a 1.8 percent decrease from 2006. Monetary losses resulting from the crime totaled $859,745,598. This reflects a 4.5 percent decrease versus the 2006 monetary loss. The 2007 motor vehicle theft rate for Texas was 393 thefts for every 100,000 people.

In 2007, more vehicle thefts occurred in August than any other month. The average dollar loss per vehicle was $9,677, and of the vehicles stolen, 58 percent were automobiles, 32 percent were trucks/buses, and the remaining 10 percent were classified as "other" vehicles.

During 2007, 67 percent of vehicles reported stolen were recovered in one form or another. Of those recovered, 74 percent were stolen locally and recovered locally, and the remaining 26 percent were stolen locally and recovered by another jurisdiction.

Law enforcement arrested 7,108 persons for motor vehicle theft. Of the arrestees, 14 percent were juveniles, 86 percent were male, 37 percent were White, 28 percent were Black, and 34 percent were Hispanic. The age group with the most arrests was the 15 to 19 year-old age group. The arrest clearance rate was 13 percent.

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►FBI REPORTS 2007 NATIONAL AUTO THEFT DECREASE
(As extracted from the FBI 2006 Uniform Crime Report)

Motor vehicle thefts declined in 2007, says the FBI. The 2007 FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) states that 2007 motor vehicle thefts in the United States totaled 1,095,769. This reflects an 8.1 percent decrease from 2006 totals.

The National Equipment Register (NER), a national database of equipment theft and ownership records, has announced the creation of a ‘Stolen Equipment Tip Line’ (866- NER-TIPS). The tip line provides a way for anyone with information about stolen equipment to help combat a growing problem for equipment owners.

David Shillingford, president of NER, explained that “although our primary purpose is to respond to inquiries from law enforcement, we have sometimes received calls from concerned citizens who have information about suspicious equipment. This type of call increased dramatically in 2005 and the ‘Stolen Equipment Tip Line’ is designed to encourage more of these calls and reward the caller where appropriate.”

As an example of the concept, Shillingford described a case in 2005 when an equipment buyer in Mississippi was being offered a Caterpillar D-5-LGP dozer below market value from someone who said that they were affiliated with FEMA. Although he was interested in buying the dozer, the potential buyer called NER first and learned that the equipment was stolen. Not only was this machine recovered, but further investigation based on this call led to the recovery of eight other machines worth over $350,000.

Under certain conditions rewards will be paid. Rewards have recently been paid to callers from California and New York for information that led to recoveries.

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The Ford Fleet web page provides free Ford VIN Guides for model years 2000 - 2008. The VIN Guides are produced in Adobe Acrobat PDF files and can be easily downloaded. Visit the site at:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/maintenance/vin_tools/default.asp#

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