The New York herald., 1922-07-20

town. and 1t is sold tomorrow In Phfa-
delphia, Boston, Hartford or any one OF
thousand cities The schemes of reg
istration I'm the different States of the
Union are all different They have sep
arate number plates and those numbers
are changed easily.
I'VE have studied this question care
fully and we have concluded the only
constructive solution is Federal law
branding every car with a permanent
number to be recorded In offices OF
United States court clerks. An absolute
check can then be kept on every car I'm
the country, and when one is stolen IT
can be easily run down. Such a law
would be the greatest possible deterrent
to the stealing OF automobiles"
Some State Laws Good.
Mr.. Todd said some States now have
excellent laws for discouraging automo-
bile thieves by requiring the recording
of all sales and transfers Of cars, but
they are not effective because all States
do not have the same laws.
Experience has taught us you cannot
get uniform State law" he added.
There are too many conflicting inter-
ests and ideas. We have had a commits
sion on uniform laws for thirty years
and so far as / know they have sue
ceeded in getting only two uniform
laws, one on negotiable instruments and
the other on bills of lading."
Scores of bills aimed at automobile
thieves have been introduced In the New
York Legislature, but about the only
one that ever got on the statute books is
that which makes 1t a crime to remove
or deface any Identification mark on an
rrxt- d., r,tt
way, however of checking up whether
such mark has been removed
Even though a State now has an ef-
fective law" said Mr.. Todd. there is
nothing to prevent a practical automo-
bile thief from stealing a car there.
running into the next State. securing
number plates for it and selling 1t with
little danger of detection. In this State
there is nothing to prevent a thief from
going to an automobile bureau. describ-
ing a car and securing automobile plates
for it. He can then steal. the kind of a
car he described, put the number on n
that he gave to the bureau and sell It.
Thieves rarely steal a car with dis
tinctive coloring or marks on 1t. but
when they do they can drive 1t to a
near by machine shop in collusion and
have 1t completely changed in appear
ance."
In spite Of the inadeQuacy Of the
present State laws State troopers have
had some success in running down au'
tomobile thieves. Major George f
Chandler, head Of the State police, sale
that during the first four months OF thii
year his troopers recovered 1873 stoler
cars In addition to others which they
got with the aid of local police officers.
Gangs Broken Up.
Several organized gangs" the Major
said, have been broken UP, one through
the efforts of trooper who worked al
chauffeur with them for about 81,
months. Through his work one Of the
leaders confessed thefts Of fourteen cars
the last of which he stole In Syracus'
and drove to Albany with the trooper
chauffeur in the car. The arrest tool
place the next morning, when the ganf
leader was about to sell the car. The
trooper in the meantime did not show
up. In spite OF numerous efforts to Sc
cure a confession from the thief ht
swore he was absolutely alone IN his
work and did not 'squeaP on his pal.
The head of this ring is believed to have
been found outside theN State OF New
York, but up to the present time its
headquarters have not been determined
"The trooper also shared In the re-
ceipts from the sale of several cars tc
the selling of which he was supposed tc
be q party However, he did not sue
ceed in meeting the ringleaders OF this
gang, as the ak fell before he got thai
far in their confidence. Two blocks dis
tance in New York city was the neares
he came to the one who delivered thu
90 20 IN tho aubanentH.
Another gang was located through
the recovery of six speedsters by oul
Batavia troop. BY the information Sc
cured in this case the Cleveland polic'
found a band of automobile thieves WHIT
operated In that city with the aid OF 9
beautifully dressed woman and child. whit
would walk along one of the prominen
boulevards afternoons. step into Z
parked car and drive off. The woman
would then deliver the gar to one OF thu
gang outside the city, who in turn drov'
it into this State. Reports OF stolen car
are received daily from police depart
ments and bulletined to troopers through
| out the State Garages are inspected
| frequently to see IL they contain stolei
cars and everything possible is done t
| overcome this evil"
The nth and concluding article IN tn