THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9408010226
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 172 lines
Think about car thefts, and certain images may come to mind: chop shops, cars stripped of parts and abandoned, rings of crooks in their 20s or early 30s. Think again. That's not the prevailing picture in Hampton Roads.
Take, for example, the case of the Magic Hollow Gang.
When Chevrolet Spectrums, Hyundais and Mazda 323s started disappearing from the Magic Hollow section of Virginia Beach last summer, it wasn't long before detectives concluded that more than one person was involved.
By the time investigators completed a five-month investigation, they had arrested seven suspects. They were all just teens - 17 or younger.
The teenagers were not in the business of crime for profit, police said. They just wanted to have a good time, and they wanted to look cool.
Nevertheless, they were all charged with eight to 10 counts of grand larceny. Most of them were sent to detention facilities.
Auto-theft detectives throughout Hampton Roads have similar stories, and their experiences are supported by FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics.
From 1980 to 1992, 8,551 suspected car thieves were arrested in seven Hampton Roads cities. Of those arrested, 7,881 were male and 5,092 were juveniles, the FBI reported.
``Fourteen seems to be a good starting age. I arrested one kid who was 10. He was in a Chevy Spectrum. He said he'd stolen the little car because he could drive it,'' Chesapeake Detective Tommy Galbreath said. ``They'll steal it, ride it, leave it. Two or three days later we'll find the thing abandoned.''
Hampton Detective Cpl. David Rogers agreed. ``Yeah, far and away it's kids,'' he said. ``They like to show off.''
Some of the young crooks are clever. All are bold.
``These kids may not be smart in school, but on the street I find they are very smart. They know how to hide or disguise a car,'' Portsmouth Detective Leroy C. Rucker said.
Young car thieves in Suffolk told officer Mike Simpkins they paid older kids $25 to show them how to break in.
Usually, the thieves smash the vent window to gain entry. Then they bust the steering column or pull out the ignition lock and start up the vehicle with a screwdriver or a toothbrush, detectives said. Then they cruise through the neighborhood - joy riding - the stolen car teeming with kids.
It sounds harmless enough - unless it's your car - but police say joy riding is not good clean fun.
``It's not like you picture joy riding in the movies in the '50s and '60s,'' said Virginia Beach Detective G.L. Nelson. ``These kids are tearing the cars up.''
They steal repeatedly, trashing the vehicles as they go, leaving a string of stolen cars from city to city.
Rucker said stealing cars to ``showboat'' is often just the beginning. Youths, troubled by family or school problems, start to steal cars. After they get caught several times, they are sent to juvenile facilities. When they get out, they either give up the game, or they continue to steal cars and move on to more serious crimes.
``I'll see them wind up in H & R (homicide and robbery) later, either as a victim or a suspect,'' Rucker said, shaking his head.
Seasoned detectives not only know who the most likely thieves are. Their experiences also tell them what cars are most likely to disappear. Car crooks steal the same models time and again.
``Somebody learns how to steal a make, and that's what he'll steal,'' Rogers said.
``If you are stealing Chevys or Oldsmobiles, you'll keep stealing those because you know how,'' said Newport News Detective T.J. White. The older models of these makes are among the hottest items because the steering column is easy to break, he said.
Detectives in almost every city have found their thieves have a penchant for particular makes.
In Chesapeake, Ford pickups, Escorts and Mustangs have been hot this year. Hampton crooks are partial to Oldsmobiles, General Motors cars, Honda Accords and Jeep Wagoneers. Newport News thieves like GM cars and Plymouth Sundances and Spirits. In Norfolk, Chrysler and GM cars have been the first to go, with a new emphasis on Plymouths and Dodge Intrepids in the past month. Suffolk police have seen Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes and Honda Accords disappear. And Virginia Beach police said lately they've been handling reports of stolen Honda Accords and Mazda 323s.
Portsmouth's Rucker declined to cite recent targets, saying the trends change far too fast to keep up.
``For whatever reason, the trends change. They might be into sports cars. Then they might be into recreational vehicles. It all depends. Right now we're seeing a mixture of everything,'' he said.
The stolen cars almost always have four doors.
``When the kids are riding around with their friends and the police stop them, they can get out and run,'' White said. ``If it's a two-door, only the driver and front-seat passenger can get away.''
Blue, gray and brown cars disappear often, probably because they are more nondescript, White said.
``Well, that makes sense, but we've had a couple of purple ones stolen,'' Galbreath said.
Perhaps surprisingly, luxury cars aren't stolen as often in Hampton Roads, but when they disappear, detectives said, they are gone for good.
``Those cars are stolen by professionals with a market for them,'' Galbreath said. ``They're on their way to Saudi Arabia or somewhere.''
The way a thief breaks into a car sometimes becomes his trademark, detectives said.
``Often we can walk up to a car, look it over and say so-and-so took this one,'' White said, ``But we can't prove it.''
Norfolk and Portsmouth, two densely populated cities, and Virginia Beach, the largest city in the state, have far more car thefts than the other Hampton Roads cities.
But in these three cities, police say auto theft is declining, and Uniform Crime Report numbers show arrests are increasing.
Local investigators said the arrest numbers are probably even higher than FBI statistics show, because of reporting inconsistencies. Virginia has no separate code for grand larceny auto theft, police said. As a result, arrests for motor vehicle thefts are sometimes reported in the general grand larceny category.
Detectives credited better coordination of patrol officers and improved communication between cities. Auto-theft units in Hampton Roads hold monthly meetings.
In addition, Hampton Roads courts have started trying youths with three or more car-theft offenses as adults, meaning they could get stiffer penalties. ``It deters some of them,'' Rucker said, ``and it allows us a bit more leverage.''
At the same time, though, detectives are grappling with new woes. In the past two years, detectives have encountered more car owners who lend their autos to drug dealers in exchange for crack cocaine. When these so-called ``fiend cars'' don't turn up, the owners often file false auto-theft reports.
Unlike other crimes, detectives say auto theft isn't confined to one area. Shopping malls, convenience stores and car lots get hit often, but so do residential neighborhoods.
``The thing with car theft is that it's sporadic. You can't narrow it down to a particular corner like drug dealing. You can't pin it down to a type of store like armed robbery,'' White said. ``Wherever they are and whenever they want a car, they'll take it.''
Police offered these tips to help prevent car theft: Always lock your car. Never leave spare keys in or around the vehicle or leave a car running unattended. Park in well-lighted, highly populated areas. The detectives also recommended that car owners purchase anti-theft devices of some sort - and use them.
``You'd be surprised how many people have them, but don't take the time to use them,'' Rucker said about the devices. ``When the car is recovered, we'll find it on the back floorboards.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
JANET SHAUGHNESSY/Staff
STOLEN CARS IN HAMPTON ROADS
Police in each city say thieves have been targeting the following
cars:
SOURCE: City police departments
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Graphics
WAYS TO PREVENT AUTO THEFT
Always lock car.
Never hide spare keys in or around vehicle.
Never leave car running unattended.
Park in well-lighted areas where there are lots of people.
Buy and use an anti-theft device.
JANET SHAUGHNESSY/Staff
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS IN HAMPTON ROADS
SOURCE: FBI Uniform Crime Report
ARRESTS FOR MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT
SOURCE: FBI Uniform Crime Report
[For complete graphics, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: AUTOMOBILE THEFTS TIDEWATER HAMPTON ROADS
STATISTICS by CNB