Suspect is arrested after evidence of chop shop found

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2003 | 9:05 a.m.

Metro Police arrested one man and are looking for several others after finding evidence of 17 stolen cars in a northeast Las Vegas chop shop.

Sgt. Susan Shingleton of Metro's Vehicle Investigation Project for Enforcement and Recovery, or VIPER, team said detectives first raided the operation, in a remote storage yard at 5300 N. Sloan Lane, near Nellis and Las Vegas boulevards, Sunday and found six whole cars.

The suspect, arrested Sunday, gave police a false name and was booked into jail as John Doe. Police said they were still trying to determine his real name Tuesday.

When detectives returned Tuesday afternoon they found pieces of nine additional cars. They also found two license plates of cars that had been reported stolen but weren't found.

Chop shops are places where stolen vehicles are taken apart so that the pieces can be sold. Parts can be more valuable than a car as a whole, police said.

The recovered cars included Nissans, a Toyota Corolla and a GMC truck. The vehicles had been stolen from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and California.

The chop shop had been in operation for about a year. Metro discovered it three to five months ago while conducting an unrelated investigation at a nearby storage yard, Shingleton said.

The man arrested as John Doe had spotted police in the area and covered his storage yard with a tarp, tying it to a chain link fence.

That alerted police that something suspicious was happening there, Shingleton said. They conducted surveillance for months and, when they had enough evidence, detectives obtained a search warrant and raided the yard. Two to five other people are believed to be involved.

"A lot of times the search warrant begins the investigation," Shingleton said. "This (investigation) has been going on for three, four, five months and we still haven't been able to ID the players."

Las Vegas was the fifth worst city in the nation for car theft in 2002, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. More than 15,500 cars were stolen last year.

In 2001, Las Vegas was was ranked 11th and it was 14th in 2000.

Shingleton said drivers can prevent car theft by the National Watch Your Car program, in which car owners sign a consent form stating that the vehicle is not normally driven between 1 and 5 a.m.

Owners are given decals that show they are enrolled in the program. If police spot a car with the decal on the streets during those hours, police are permitted to pull it over.

"We have about 500 signed up," Shingleton said. "We'd like to get more, because the more we have, the lower our auto theft rate will be."

Drivers can register for the program at any Metro substation.