El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-06-02

stolen car to appear. When he comes
they come out and get into their ma
chine. Naturally he asks them II
they had seen his car. standing there
when they drove up. OF course they
had not
Their game was TO keep him in
conVeratison as long as possible as TO
give the thief plenty Of time to get
away before the police are notified
They suggest to the man that mas
much as that space was vacant when
they drove up, perhaps someone had
stolen his car and he had better re-
port the theft to the police depart
ment He thanks them and never
BY the time the police have his re-
port. the stolen car is safely under
going the necessary changes to es-
cape identity 1t is then taken 10 the
dealer wanting the car and sold
Locking Devices Fail.
Now Just how are we TO aid the
police departments in recovering lost
or stolen cars wh-S II is going on in
such a wholesale manner There
are numerous locking devices in the
market today devices for checking
the flow of gasoline to the carbu-
ton switch; devices for locking the
control levers, etc. yet none are Suf-
ficient to keep thieves from working
around them Therefore, some other
means must De employed.
Detailed 1dentlfieaton OFFERS a
possibility. By this is meant identi-
fication Of every part Of the car
/ Every motor car manufacturer has a
system of marking the various parts
that enter into the assembly OF his
car. Usually a system of numbers is
used and every part has its number
II the police and detectives could be
taught motor car design so that they
might become familiar with the
places where the Identification num-
| bers NAV be found on the various
parts OF different makes Of cars. a
hurried examination OF q suspected
car might reveal its identity, even
] through the car had undergone a
complete transformation as described
above. because in nearly every case
Of such a Transformation there
would be most likely one or more of
the manufacturers numbers that
/ would be overlooked in REMEMBERING
or that would simply be painted over.
/ One such number would serve as suf-
ficient Identification to return the
car to its owner.
"As things are today. there are
but two numbers on an automobile
that the owner and police know any
thing about These two numbers
are the car number and the motor
tanning a license from the secretary
Of state. After this they are usually
forgotten. Even the Identification
card given the owner at the time OF
obtaining the license is often lost. So
the owner of a stolen car is helpless
because they can obtain no numbers
without great loss of time.
Police Should Have Numbers.
"Now if police departments had
records of all numbers on each of
the individual cars registered in
their state, and further could obtain
similar records from other states. it
would aid considerably in recovering
stolen cars. because, even though the
thieves are clever enough to wipe
out most of the numbers. II stands to
reason that there would be a few
OF the original numbers left on the
machine, even though covered with
paint.
by some means then. the right
influence must be brought to bear SO
that owners shall be required to OBJ
tain from the factories all the num-
bers on their cars and register these
numbers with the secretary OF state
when their license is granted The
training OF the police and detectives
in loca ZIG numbers will take much
time and skill, but II can be done,
and by so doing. it will bring up the
efficiency of the departments, with
regard to recovery of stolen cars,
from its present standard OF 50 or
20 percent to nearly 100 percent"