Auto thefts

Expert: Scrap prices driving crime

By MARLY KOSINSKI / Tribune Chronicle
While the number of auto thefts across Ohio and the nation have dropped for the fourth straight year, Trumbull and Mahoning counties this year slid into the top ten Ohio counties for number of cars stolen.

The dubious designation for the first quarter of 2008 has Trumbull ranking tenth in the state with 39 vehicles stolen during the three-month period. Mahoning ranked even higher, at seventh, with 69 autos stolen January to March.

While the overall number of stolen vehicles is on the decline, experts say a faltering economy coupled with the rising value of scrap metal may be part of the reason for the local area to be ranked high.

A stolen vehicle can fetch more than three times its value when the parts are sold individually, according to Mitch Wilson, vice president of public information and education at the Ohio Insurance Institute.

He said the most valuable car parts are CD players, catalytic converters and wheels — all of which can be sold for scrap metal and are relatively easy to steal.

According to Sgt. Jeremy Landis, public information officer for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the majority of stolen cars are ‘‘stripped’’ or ‘‘chopped’’ for parts, while very few are taken for joy rides.

Trumbull County Sheriff’s detective Sgt. Pete Pizzulo said deputies are seeing a recent increase in thefts of junk vehicles, especially in the rural areas of the county. He said thieves steal inoperable vehicles from yards and either sell the parts for scrap or sell the entire vehicle to auto salvagers.

‘‘There’s no way to track those vehicles because they don’t have license plates, usually aren’t registered and don’t have Vehicle Identification Numbers. That means our stolen vehicle numbers actually could be higher than what the statistics show,’’ the detective said.

The Trumbull Sheriff’s Office already has tripled its car theft rate from last year over the seven stolen vehicles reported in 2007. As of April 22, 21 stolen vehicles were reported so far in 2008.

Pizzulo did note, however, the number might be a bit deceiving because 10 of those cars were taken in one theft and may end up as a civil matter. He said a Mecca resident returned from his winter home in Florida April 16 to discover 10 cars and two motorcycles missing from a storage garage.

Warren auto theft statistics, however, more closely mirror state and nation trends. Here vehicle theft numbers have dropped consistently over the past four years from about 400 in 2004 and 2005 to just under 200 in 2007, according to Warren Police Department reports.

Of 199 cars stolen last year, all but 91 were recovered in the city.

Captain Tim Bowers said he thinks a number of factors are contributing to the decline, including more vehicle security features and more enforcement efforts, as well as more preventative measures by vehicle owners.

Bowers also offered another explanation.

‘‘There are very few amateur car thieves anymore because it’s not as easy as it used to be. So now you have a professional car thief who is responsible for five or six car thefts in one area. He gets arrested for another crime and spends some time in jail, so the vehicle thefts stop. That results in an overall drop of car thefts for the year,’’ he said.

Retired Youngstown police officer Mike Walsh, who previously served as director of the Ohio Auto Theft Investigators Association and was a member of Youngstown’s auto theft unit, said upgrades to security systems in newer model cars may deter thefts, but older road-worthy cars are still heavily targeted by thieves.

He said in the 1980s, auto theft was a major problem because of the way cars were built.

‘‘A 10-year-old could steal a car with a screwdriver,’’ Walsh said.

By the 1990s, car manufacturers started building cars with more electronic components and security features such as key chips and disabling devices. Today, technology such as Global Positioning Systems and vehicle tracking systems, as well as sophisticated car alarms, make auto theft a risky venture for amateurs.

Walsh said older cars still are targeted because they don’t have the modern security features found on newer models.

He said most cars are stolen from parking lots and decks because there is a ‘‘smorgasboard’’ of vehicles to choose from with little chance of being caught. When the Youngstown Police Department would do sting operations in shopping center lots, their efforts would yield few arrests.

‘‘We found out that the same people were responsible for most of the thefts so we would follow the repeat offenders and catch a lot more that way,’’ Walsh said.

Walsh said there are several categories of car thieves, including professionals who want the car for retagging operations and black market sales, joy riders who take the car for a spin and abandon it and thieves who steal cars strictly for the parts.

Another trend is gang initiations in which potential members have to steal a car and get points based on the type of vehicle, where it was stolen and how much can be received for the parts.

‘‘The car theft business was slowing down when I left the department, and I am happy to see those numbers are continuing to decline,’’ Walsh said.

The state Highway Patrol spokesman echoed Walsh.

‘‘It’s important to remember that even though the Mahoning Valley ranked high compared to other counties, the overall number of stolen vehicles is still down from where we were a few years ago,’’ Landis said.

As for getting stolen cars back, Ohio Insurance Institute numbers show the recovery rate for stolen vehicles is between 60 and 70 percent, but the likelihood of an arrest is comparatively small at about 12.6 percent.

‘‘A lot of the recoveries are made during traffic stops, but the driver is not necessarily the perpetrator,’’ Landis said.

Still, the estimated value of unrecovered stolen vehicles in Ohio totaled $102 million in 2006, the most recent year data was available from the Ohio Insurance Institute.

Wilson said thieves also will consistently target the most popular vehicles on the road because it’s easier to trade parts for them and to blend in if you’re driving a popular vehicle.

That’s why the top 10 stolen vehicles in Ohio doesn’t change much annually, he said. The Honda Accord, Honda Civic and Oldsmobile Cutlass usually making the list. The Cutlass ranked number 1 for the first quarter of this year.

‘‘Those vehicles are very popular among consumers, so it’s obvious their rate of thefts would be higher since there are more of them on the road,’’ Wilson said.

And while Wilson said the number of car thefts is a factor that is considered when establishing individual insurance rates for a geographical area, the good news is it is just one item among hundreds taken into account.

‘‘So the fact that Mahoning and Trumbull counties are in the top 10 for vehicle thefts in the first quarter of 2008 doesn’t mean that residents’ (insurance) rates will go up. There are a lot of other factors taken into consideration,’’ Wilson said.

mkosinski@tribune-chronicle.com