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twitterMetro works to keep empty houses free of chop shops
A busted chop shop is shown in Las Vegas.
Friday, July 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Topics
Sun Archives
- Police searching for man involved in chop shop (12-22-2008)
- Police arrest chop shop owner (8-8-2008)
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The home had been empty for six months when Mary Ann Young’s real estate agent called her with a question: Can you come get this car out of the garage?
Young told her agent she hadn’t left a car in the garage. Her agent insisted. So Young went to the Las Vegas home to see for herself, and, yes, there it was, a 2004 Chevy Tahoe — or at least the shell of a 2004 Chevy Tahoe.
The SUV was on blocks and gutted. The seats had been ripped out, the interior paneling and padding had been stripped, the head- and taillights — gone.
Young’s dilapidated 1967 house with an empty pool and garage had become what Metro detectives call a “chop rental.” That’s a vacant home, in this case a short-sale real estate listing, that’s used by criminals for the purpose of stripping stolen cars.
“If the house is empty and shut down, all you have to do is pirate a little electricity and off you go,” Metro Lt. Bob DuVall explains.
Why commit a crime on your own property, after all? And when the stripping is done, the thieves walk away from the carcass.
Whoever left the stolen SUV at Young’s also left behind a Dodgers hat.
DuVall won’t go into details, but he says it’s impossible for auto thieves to make a clean break from any chop shop — evidence is always left behind, or it walks in through the front door. Detectives working under DuVall at Metro’s auto theft section were staking out an empty chop rental house when a guy pulled up and strolled right in — like any employee showing up for work, the lieutenant says.
But criminals who get caught running chop rentals risk stacking up a number of charges on top of the ones directly related to stealing and stripping cars. In Nevada, entering a house or property to commit a crime is burglary, a felony.
Early last year, DuVall’s detectives were busting chop shops on a weekly basis, a number of which were run out of empty houses. Most of the people they’d arrest during these investigations worked within auto theft rings, so the word spread — police were on to the empty houses. In recent months, the number of chop rentals has dropped considerably.
“They’ve realized they probably have to go further underground,” DuVall says.
Maybe most realized that, but not all, because Young learned of the SUV in her garage June 30. It’s impossible to know how long people had been using Young’s house, or whether they were done. Whoever was stripping the car also left behind a back-seat DVD player. This could mean the thieves were scared off (perhaps when they realized a real estate agent had checked on the property), or not done working or just not in the market for any DVD players at the moment.
Because parts can be swapped among cars, thieves sometimes seek out very specific items, such as leather seats or doors with power windows. They know which models’ parts are interchangeable, and they take what they need.
As to whether that was what was going on with the SUV at Young’s house, DuVall’s detectives didn’t say. The house is still for sale, though it no longer comes with a stripped Chevy Tahoe.
Discussion: 18 comments so far…
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welcome to vegas.
again...
it's sad that our cops spend hours and hours going after people that have not gotten nevada plates, but this stuff goes on all over town.
Dodger cap? I'd say there's a high probability that one of the bad guys is Hispanic - and I've never been to detective school!
he big problem in Las Vegas is banks are holding onto repos in a bid to release them slowly onto market to keep prices artificially high, however this clearly comes with pitfalls...
when will banks ever learn??????
Do they care?
I have heard they have around 40,000 properties hidden in their books ready to release, this was from a contact of mine in a major bank, he does state this was only the properties he knew of, he thinks the number may well be double that, he said that was a mix of bank owned and about to be bank owned, whatever he may mean by that... Not sure how he got his figures however I won't press him, he may lose his job!!!
Driving without license plates or expired license plates is a crime. It also means those people aren't paying their fair share of taxes.
This sounds like risky business. If neighbors see suspicious people and cars going into a foreclosed house they are apt to call the police.
More imported crime from the south.....when are the politicians ever going to wake up?
What are these released Felons suppose to do? You won't train & hire them for legit jobs; you people deserve to have you cars stolen & insurance rates sky high! So what if they go back to prison; you have to pay for that too! INSANE!
"Driving without license plates or expired license plates is a crime" SAYS WHO, THE GOVERNMENT? The government is ILLEGAL and can't make laws!
the point i was trying to make about the license plates is that there is SO much violent crime and property crime in this county that reduces property values, gives vegas a bad image, raises insurance rates, etc.
a stolen car has much more impact on all of us than someone still driving around with california plates.
every time i see the police on some kind of public relations "look how hard we work" campaign of wearing seatbelts, speeding, license plates, etc. it takes time away from them focusing on much more serious crimes.
EVERY officer while on patrol should go through every neighborhood on his "beat" at least once a day.
period.
if you KNEW a cop was going to come through your neighborhood at some point today, how likely are you to be operating a chop shop?
At least the chop shop guys HAVE A JOB!
Agree rejco. I have more respect for these chop shop guys than I do for banks that charge you $35 for an overdraft, or high school guidance counselors who tell kids to go to college but don't warn them about Sallie Mae. Check out this Nightline about bank overdraft fees:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=...
This sounds like really risky business. If I see suspicious people and cars going into a foreclosed house I am apt to bust a cap in their ass, and then call the police. :-)
"What are these released Felons suppose to do? You won't train & hire them for legit jobs; you people deserve to have you cars stolen & insurance rates sky high! So what if they go back to prison; you have to pay for that too! INSANE!"
You are right, let's have citizen's committees to execute ex-felons.
GOINGBUST......you have some real serious problems !!
A lot of these cars are "turnovers"
people give the car to someone to strip, get $500-$1000 for a car they are upside-down in, then report it stolen for the insurance..
look at that fire Captain's stunt
and don't think the real estate people aren't involved in some cases...
(I could use that power sunroof)
Yes, housing is in the sewer. There is also a real asset behind all the toxicity - a house - that does not have a zero value. It will bottom and come back. -- found a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
So, my solution to the budget crisis is to ticket all the folks who don't have a front license plate and sock em maybe 200 a pop and more for failure to comply. easy pickings - I think that maybe 25% of the cars I see have no front license plate - Yes, I know it doesn't have much to do with chop shops in empty houses - maybe more to do with brainlessness and cluelessness - I think it could be done by deputizing meter maids to pursue the license plates on the streets and in parking ramps.
While a little off topic, I have pictures of about 20 cars, high end cars with no plates. They have some fancy dealer plates, but no real dealer plate.... they'll say "BMW" etc. I've never seen one pulled over, and I haven't managed to get the "Road Warrior" to take up the cause...
Look there's a stolen shopping cart there too. I bet metro didn't even dust the place for prints or get DNA out of the toilet.