The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-02
MANY STO[ENCARS WERE RECOVERED BYC|TYDETECTNES
Yearly Report of Detectives On Auto Detail Shows Excel lent ReCord-TimeIy Sug-
 gestions Offered

Members of the city detective depart ment have been unusually active during the past year in recovering stolen au- tomobiles.
 The annual, report, which was sub mitted to Chief George Lyons, shows that Birmingham is no place for the automobile thief to confne his activ- ities.
 The report shows that 552 automo- piles were stolen in Birmingham dur ing the past 12 months. Out of this number AS were recovered, leaving a balance of 1O4 cars of which the po- lice have so far been unable to find any trace
 Of the 1O4 cars which the city de- tective department has been unable to recover, S1 were Fords, and city de- tecetives point out that this make of car has only one factory number on it and when this is changed that un- less the owner has some private mark on the car, it is almost impossible to identify it.
 a They also say they believe that the majority of the Fords which have not been recovered are being operated in Birmingham at the present time, and they are powerless to interfere because the owners cannot identify them.
 MANY CARS RECOVERED
 City Detectives E. L. Hollums and w. 10. DeGroat, who have been especially assigned to the recovery of stolen au- tomobiles, and to whose activities yesterday submitted their report. Both detectives are considered experts in the line of work which they are en- gagged in and along with their report they made several timely suggestions.
 Among the suggestions made was the need of urging automobile owners to place secret Identification marks upon their cars. It was pointed out that especially is this the case with the Ford car, which has only one factory number to the car. This can easily Joe removed by the thief and another put in its place, and in that case, city detectives say. it is almost impossible for the owner to identify his car Whereas, they point out, if the owner had placed secret Identification mark npon the car when he purchased it, the car could be identified anywhere.
 EASILY IDENTIFIED
 Several weeks ago a Chandler car was reported stolen to the police department "A week later the car was recovered, bus the engine number, the body number and {. all the other factory numbers on the car had been removed by the thief. But the owner identified the car the minute , he arrived at police headquarters, be- cause before it had been stolen he had taken about five minutes time and painted his initials on the underside of the floor under the rear seat.
 City detectives also point out that the small number of prosecutions which have been made so far is due to the fact that many automobile owners when they re- cover their cars are willing to let the matter drop there and do not want to assist the officers in bringing the thief to trial. They say, however, that they have always found the solicitor ready and willing to prosecute when the au- tomoble owner whose car had been ie- covered did not go to him and state it was his wish to have the case nolle pressed.
 The board of city commissioners, at the suggestion of Detectives Hollums and DeGroat, have accepted an ordinance which requires automobile owners who drive their cars in or through the city to report to detective headquarters, giv- ing the make of their automobile, the motor number and the license numter and also the name and the home address of the owner. This, city detectives point out, will give the department a record of every foreign automobile in the city and will be Invaluable in cases of recK- less driving c, of accidents.