The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-06
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREA U
FRmERIC J. HASKIN. Diroctas.
Washington, D. C.
LOCK YOUR CAR.
Washington. D. G

LOCK YOUR CAR.
| Washington, D. c., June 3.-Unless
| you lock your car securely every time
| you leave it on the street, and unless
you keep it in a garage at night, you
are inviting loss by theft.
A few years ago, when car stealing
was done mostly by clumsy amateurs
| bent on joy riding, you may have been
| justified in taking chances; but now
| this branch of larceny has grown into
thriving industry, the existence of
which is made possible by careless car
| owners. The cleverest and most dar-
| ing professional thieves in the coun-
try are going into the car-stealIng
| business, and the percentage OF stolen
cars recovered is growing steadily
smaller in most cities. Yet the car
that is properly locked, and is kept in
| garage is seldom stolen.
Police records show that the major
| ity of automobiles stolen during the
| past year-and the number is impress
| sive-either bore no special locking
| devices at the time of the theft, OF
were left unlocked by careless owners.
The other day. a Washington detective
| had to be sent all the way to Cal1for-
mia to recover a touring car belonging
to a local business man. who admitted
that his car had lock, but that ne
had foolishly left the key in 1t.
The American Automobile associa-
| ton reports that in nine months, in
/
were stolen. Figuring an average cost
of $3.50 per car, this would mean the
| loss of over ten million dollars worth
of property. Quite an industry!
| In Washington during the last year,
| S64 cars were stolen, 1874 of which
| have not yet been recovered. This
| represents a high percentage OF re-
covery. In most cities only 40 or 90
| per cent of stolen cars are recovered.
An idea of the traffic in stolen tires
ha the IA that the
police force here recovered fifteen
| thousand dollars worth of tires of one
make during the past year
In addition to the value of the
property, it costs the city $12 TO SO
! every time a car is stolen. When a
car is reported missing at police head
| quarters, an officer takes down de-
| scription of the vehicle, or as much OF
it as he can pump out of the owner.
| Usually, this is surprisingly little II
is incredible how much the average
! person does not know about his car.
| Quite commonly, he does not know
| the numbers on his license tags,f and
| seldom is he acquainted with the mo-
| tor number.
IF automobile owners would only
carry and also keep at home or at
their offices a written memorandum
| of their license numbers, engine num-
4 Der. tire numbers, and the location
and description of private Identified
ton marks on the machine" says Maj.
Raymond w. Pullman, police COM
missioner of Washington. lit would
greatly expedite the tracing of their
| lost property"
| Having obtained such meager in
| formation as is available about a lost
car the\ officer in charge gets in touch
with the various hundreds of call
boxes turnout the city, instructing
| every policeman to watch out for such
| a machine. The same informant is
| then telephoned to all sheriffs and
| police stations within a radiuS'of fifty
| miles, and telegraph to all the large
cities. At the same time. all city
! CARA ges and certain out of town gar
ages are notified, and circular, con-
| tanning a description of the car, sent
all over the country The automo-
| bile police detachment, consisting of
| three or four expert sleuths, who
spend their days riding about the city
on the lookout for stolen cars, put the
new car on their list of the missing
The professional thief takes elabor-
| ate measures to camouflage a car
Upon stealing one. he usually makes
a rapid dash for the nearest strip of
| isolated country, where he runs the
machine into the woods. When it re-
appears it is a different vehicle in
] many respects. 1t bears different
license tags; it has new motor num-
| Der; it may be a new color, and in
some cases it has a new type of body.
| A delivery wagon was stolen in Wash
| ington one day, and the next day it
was recovered as a touring car.
| Having executed these rapid
changes. the next step of the profess
sional thief is to place the car on the
market. 1t has often been noted by
| police authorities that the higher
priced cars are seldom stolen, and the
! Washington police believe that this is
| because they are harder to sell. The
| thief must have the appearance of
wealth, in order to convince the pur-
| chaser that he owns car costing sew
eral thousand dollars. But the lower
priced cars are usually marketed with
| ease. Those of one make are disposed
| of with such slight difficulty, and are
| afterwards so hard to trace, according
| to the police that insurance compan-
res thruout the middle west have
recently refused to insure them against
| theft. Two men were arrested in New
| York not long ago who had stolen and
successfully marketed over sixty cheap
cars. Two years ago, moreover, when
the jitney craze was at its height, two
young men were arrested who had
stolen thirty light cars, with which
they purposed to start a jitney line in
a southern city. In this case all of the
cars were recovered.
That any kind of car can be
stolen was proved by an organized
gang of automobile thieves, which
operated in New York for a long time.
One member of the organization acted
as the selling agent. Whenever he re-
ceived an order for a certain make of
car. he reported it to headquarters,
and the gang went out and stole it.
The stolen car was run into an es-
| adjustment, consisting of a couple
of sheds along the waterfront, where
a couple of mechanics skillfully de-
stroyed the marks of its identity, and
gave it new one.
The marketing of stolen cars is
! greatly facilitated by the fact that
there are many persons who are only
too willing, when the article is Of
fered at low price, not to make any
embarrassing inquiries. This is also