Lately weve seen a rise in stolen cars throughout the whole country. But even more so it seems like its related to california. a couple of months ago the ruby deluxe was stoilen, last night zombie57ranchero`s brothers 50 chevy. I know im probably missing some. But it got me to wondering if there is one or many people all connected in the southern california area stealing specific cares and shipping them out of long beach. Id like to hear your guy`s take on it. thanks, bagged chevy.
And reading the threads and event coverage on here is like a huge menu to choose from.................
I know, just run the licence plate and go get it. Lots probably go overseas, but i bet a bunch go to the continent below us. Years ago i herd that they were sending them to japan. but i dont know that as fact.
If you post up pics i would suggest blacking out your plates first. Who knows who could be creeping around this site.
I have a feeling you're more right than you know. I lived in Argentina for a while and the 'hot rod' craze has gotten huge down there. My guess is 95% of the stolen cars are being shipped via San Diego or Long Beach to Brazil or B.A. Unfortuately, this is not a new thing.....just the fact its now roadsters and not Escalades. With tens of thousands of containers leaving LB on a given day, its impossible to search each one.
Oh i know how right i am. I think they get trucked to the port of escondido in mexico, it would be easier to brib people. Or i think there is a train from mexicali all the way south. I dont think a classic car chop shop would last long. Most or some of these people are real profesinals. There are the trailer thieves as well. Im sure the market for stolen dune buggys, atv's and motorcycles are in demand south of the border and equator are high as well.
The first place I'd check on the HAMB is the Sticky: Bad Sellers/Buyers! Maybe some of those cats are up to pulling bigger tricks.
This is my thought. Thieves see a big enclosed trailer and probably figure it's full of construction equipment or something else which is easy to pawn. That's why quite a few of the stolen cars that were in trailers end up being found abandoned, they're too hard to resell. Sophisticated theft rings are Hollywood movie bullshit. Thieves are morons and drug addicts. Smart, highly skilled and able bodied people have no problems making money within the law. If you had connections to buyers in other countries and the know-how to ship cars there with little or no paperwork you'd already be able to make a lot of cash legally, there'd be very little reason to take all that risk.
Well,a soft economy,people living on the edge who need money will do whatever.People lose their jobs,thing go to shit,they can't sell their car for good money in a market of depressed prices.They have insurance,the car disappears. And car thieves will take what they can off in the least time for the most bucks.The steal of the day now is custom and hotrods.
I try hard not to post pics of any CURRENT cars with license numbers showing. Stuff I've owned and subsequently sold are of no concern to me. I have enough trouble keeping track of where I put stuff without giving some lowlife an opportunity to lift anything I own. dj
maybe we need to bait these boys. I hunt coyotes all the time , these fellas cant be much different . Set something out they really want and drop em when they come runnin in. take a really nice ride in an area that has seen a few of these thefts. park the car in a dimly lit lot but can be seen well . make it to good to be true for them . have about 40 guys laying in wait.
Here's something to think about when you're taking pictures of your car/truck. This article was in the news today, I think everyone needs to know about this. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/19/geotagging-risks-dangers-twitter/
This is why I boycot the dmv all together and just run plates I pick up at swap meets and antique stores...
there are also a lot of people who cant pay their mortgage and make their hot rods dissapear.the cops caught a couple of guys doing just that.they allegedly were stolen from the parking lot while still on the trailer waiting to be unloaded for a car show.who leaves a 80,000 dollar willys coupe on a trailer attached to a truck and goes to a car show for hours before they unload it.the cops found out they were out of work and unemployment was running out,also they didnt have any money in the bank to pay for the house.they cut up the cars,sold what they could and scrapped the rest.anyone can cut up a car,sell the parts,wait a month,go to the mall ,shop and come out and call the police and say my cars been stolen,then cash in with the insurance company.just do it alone and tell no one,loose lips sink ships.
I was going to post something simular to that, i saw the other day.. smart phones, I phones, Blackberries..etc..face book, twitter..etc...
I go down to South America 3 to 4 times a year. I do occasionally see hot rods, customs etc. I have other friends who are pilots that fly down there as well. I'll suggest to them and to other who venture down there to take pictures of all the stuff they see. While it will not help anyone get their cars back, it will give us an idea where they are going. Someone might recognize their stolen car in Rio or Buenos Aires. Hopefully some exposure might help.
watched an interesting show on tv some time ago about a car theft ring.they were busted because they stole a lalge number of ladas as well as ferraris 4wds ,etc. a clever cop discovered a large no of ladas missing none recovered.they had to be going to russia nowere else were they of any value .eventually the ladas were discovered and the big buck theft ring came down alongside the ladas.the ladas could have been bought in the uk for allmost nothing the 4x4s were going to pakistan no questions asked and a lot more went to australia
You gotta be kidding!. "LOOSE LIPS". You pull that shit no matter how big your troubles are, is like pouring gasoline on the fire, what you are talking about is a Criminal offence and Jail time.
yes i have also wondered if we have actually donated some to this. And that link is pretty wild, as easy as disiphering a picture
I think at least some of the cars are being stolen and shipped out of the country, and I would think long and hard about "baiting" guys that have the connections to get a stolen car into a shipping container and out of the country, we are talking serious organized crime, and those guys are packing, and around here at least, alot of them have armoured vehicles with bullet-proof glass. The idea of having a "shootout at the OK corral, may sound very macho and dramatic, but a shoot out in the street with a bunch of guys with automatic weapons and body armour should take some of the luster off that idea. Here in SW BC where I live, we have had more than a few shootouts in the street in the last couple years over drug turf. IF the guys doing this are shipping them out of the country, and thats sure the way it looks to me, you arent talking about a few crackheads with little pop guns, these guys are serious.
i agree falcongeorge, they see money in it just like drug trafficing. Down here its not that serious as far as ive seen. although youre right if they have a connection in another country for recieving cars and a connection at the docks for shipping them out, whats not to say that this isnt connected to something larger?
^^yes, thats pretty much my thinking. Not all of it, but these high profile cars that seem to just disappear without a trace...
The one guys brothers 51 chevy stolen. He got it back if you read the post about it. Turns out that it was some wanabe ganster kids. The majority of cars getting jacked are kids looking for quick money. I'm law enforcement so I've done my fair share of grand theft auto and auto break ins. Its mostly lazy a$$ kids looking for a quick way to get money or status. A big ring I kind of doubt but is super posable. Most big rings pick the newer luxury type cars, supply and demand determines it all. There have been kid auto theft rings, gang related type snot but mostly kids that think they're big pins or want to be something edgy. Some rings use kids to do the dirty work cause its cheap to them in the long run. Instead of trying to figure out who's doing, we might need to set up defense by cameras, GPS, alarms, and extra lock type things. Keep your eyes peeled fellows cause there's always someone watching. Just don't get complacent with your gear man. I have cheap very reliable cameras and stuff like that fallowed by a hollow point 45. Just a little of my thoughts.
There was a kid here in Lubbock that was stealing HAMB friendly cars and parts and selling them on the HAMB. He was finally caught by the local cops and I believe he was banned from the HAMB. maybe its just human nature, but I would have expected better from car guys......I hate thieves.
I don't think that many of them are kept whole for very long. Almost any of our cars are worth more disassembled than complete. The margin is most likely nicer too. Our stuff also does not have skew imprints on it, numbers anything. On a newer car your only resale source for hot parts on a large basis would be body shops and repair guys. All watched closely. With our stuff the general public is buying and selling, easier to blend in and sell to, much harder to police. This is not really a very nice thing to think about is it?
The local organized crime groups in my area have been targeting high end vehicles and exporting them overseas for some time, its been reported extensively in the local media. Car theft is a sideline, BC bud is the bulk of thier business and what the shootouts have been about. These same guys are well organized enough the ship LARGE quantities of BC bud across the line, and ship automatic weapons and cocaine back into Canada. Last year, two of them were arrested within blocks of a stoplight shooting on Granville street in an armoured Cadillac Escalade, and body armour has been confiscated in raids. This is what I am basing my comments on. If these guys start getting guys asking for street rods instead of Mercedes, they will rip off street rods. I agree that 99% of car thefts are half-witted morons. No arguments there. But this recent rash of thefts, high-end cars being stolen from locked storage lockers and garages and quickly disappearing without a trace dont sound like amateur hour to me. Its not a big stretch to think that the same guys that have been ripping off luxury cars and stuffing them in shipping containers have started to get guys asking for hot rods. Muscle cars and hot rods have recently become big status symbols in Japan and elsewhere. Not saying for sure this is whats happening, but its a REAL good possibility.
Not a HAMB car, but my buddies late model MBZ was stolen about a month ago out in Hemet, CA. Two days later it was recovered with 2 dozen other MBZ's in Rialto.... they busted that ring. Crazy!
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