Yahoo Autos Organized Crime Behind Dealership Theft Trend
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Southeast Michigan, like many other parts of the country, has been dealing with a rash of dealership break-ins where hundreds or thousands in cars are taken in minutes. We know this has been a trend well before covid hit, but now Michigan State Police are just reconfirming something else we already knew: organized crime is behind it.
Watch an Arkansas trooper deal with a street takeover suspect in the most brutal way possible.
According to MSP, these organized theft rings will purposely recruit teenagers to steal cars, giving them just a few hundred dollars per job. Think about that: these kids aren’t even getting one percent of the value of what they’re stealing. They’re obviously idiots.
MSP also says the main concentration of these heists in the area is Dodge, GMC, and Chevrolet dealerships, reports WTOL11. There’s big demand for pats from those brands in the black market, making them easier to unload quickly.
Sometimes the VINs on the vehicles are swapped with a legitimate one and the whole thing is sold for cheap.
The whole point of recruiting minors to do the thieving is if they’re caught they often get a slap on the wrist and can be back to stealing in no time. Adults will often be held longer and have to deal with other legal complications.
We see this same business approach in other parts of the country and even in Canada and elsewhere. At the end of the day these organized crime rings, which often are international and are into drug and human trafficking as well as other illegal activities, run like any other business.
The kids who steal cars are dumb but cheap labor, yet they probably think they’re on top of the world. Their only useful quality is they won’t sit in a jail cell, keeping them out of the labor pool.
Lawmakers, law enforcement, and prosecutors are going to have to figure out what to do about these organized crime rings if they want to curb the dealership theft trend.
Image via Daphne Police Department/WPMI
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