Stolen vehicle list piles up at scrap yard

GARY | Police combed through heaps of severed car parts and crushed vehicles Tuesday looking for clues as to which parts may have came from stolen vehicles.

As of Tuesday night, officers had found evidence of more than 20 stolen cars in the yard of Nakia's Auto Salvage, at 650 W. Ninth Place in Gary, police said.

A GPS within a car led a finance company in another state to call Gary detectives Sunday to check for the stolen 2001 Dodge Intrepid at the junkyard.

The owner of the car was visiting Gary from Maryland. His car was stolen Saturday, Gary police Lt. Samuel Roberts said.

"Investigators came out and observed the Intrepid in plain sight," he said. "They got a search warrant and started recovering more stolen vehicles."

Erica Leonard, 37, of Gary, woke up Sunday morning, looked out her window to check the weather and found out her car had been stolen.

Gary police called her Monday to notify her that her 1999 Dodge Intrepid had been found in the scrap yard.

On the first day of the investigation, 17 vehicles were found -- some were intact, others were gutted, crushed and stacked on top of one another. Some vehicles had been chopped up with parts littered throughout the yard.

Leonard was thankful because her car was found with minor damage to the glove box and steering wheel.

"They told me it was (going to) be crushed like the other cars there," she said. "Thank God it wasn't because I wouldn't have gotten a dime for it since I only had liability (insurance) on it."

Investigators are continuing to attempt to contact the owners of the vehicles they can identify, Detective William Clouse said.

While some cars were reported stolen in Gary, others came from surrounding areas such as Merrillville, East Chicago, Hammond and Calumet City, Clouse said.

A pile of car doors stacked in the middle of the scrap lot allowed investigators to identify stolen property through vehicle identification numbers. But many of the doors' numbers had been removed.

Even gutted Gary police vehicles were scattered throughout the heaps of metal and garbage.

"(The owner of the yard) just bought these (some of the police vehicles) at an auction in February," Clouse said.

The owner of the yard also had been charged about two months ago with auto theft in connection with a stolen car on the back of a truck, Clouse said.

Charges in this investigation have not been filed yet, police said. The investigation is still ongoing and charges will be filed once everything is evaluated, Clouse said.

The most commonly stolen cars and insurance | All About Dodge Cars

Article by Norris Rios

It won’t be big news for car owners saying that some cars are just too good to not get stolen every now and then. To our regret, car theft is something that happens in our country on a regular basis, and those who do it have particular tastes and interests when tracking down their victims. In some cases there’s even a hunt for particular car makes and models, which makes insurance providers adjust their rates accordingly. Who wants to insure a car for cheap when it’s very likely to be stolen, right?

According to the 2009 National Insurance Crime Bureau, the following are the top 10 most commonly stolen cars in the US:

1. ’94 Honda Accord2. ’95 Honda Civic3. ’91 Toyota Camry4. ’97 Ford F-150 Pickup5. ’04 Dodge Ram Pickup6. ’00 Dodge Caravan7. ’94 Full Size Chevrolet Pickup8. ’94 Acura Integra9. ’02 Ford Explorer10. ’09 Toyota Corolla

These are the average national rankings, which vary from state to state. For example, in southern states there’s a particular interest in ’95 full-size Chevrolet pickups, while the northern car thieves prefer ’00 Dodge Caravans. In general, the ’90 import cars seem to be very popular targets for car thefts. There are many reasons for this, including their affordable prices and in many cases the possibilities of tuning, which are highly appreciated among car enthusiast who often don’t even suspect that they are buying a stolen car for such a low price. Still, some newer models show their wide popularity among the population, which is reflected bizarrely through higher theft rates.

How these statistics reflect in car insurance quotes and rates? Well, insurance providers simply tend to set higher rates when seeing vehicles with high theft rates even if other factors such as engine volume, top speed, age and sex of the driver, his credibility and driving record are good in general. This is done to assure that the insurance company is getting the payment for taking the risk of insuring a particular vehicle, which is of course higher when dealing with car from the list above.

What can be done to get lower car insurance quotes even if you have a vehicle from the list? First of all, make sure to minimize the risk of the car being stolen. This can be done in different ways. You can install anti-theft devices, alarms and engine blockers to make your car less prone to theft. Next, throw out the junk from your garage that keeps your car on the roadside in front of the house and use it according to its purpose. If you don’t have a garage, or have to park the vehicle in the city, make sure to take all the valuables with you. Things like your ipod, GPS navigator or laptop can be a strong temptation for a burglar to break into the car, and it won’t take them far to commence actual car theft. And of course, don’t forget to shop around for car insurance. Get as many car insurance quotes from different providers as you can and you’ll surely find an attractive policy. Insurance companies have different theft statistics and claims, so use it to your advantage.

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