Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-30

OhING the past years auto
mobile stealing has become
o3e of the finer arts. Grim
- ina1s have put their efforts to
perfecting means of dis
posal and Justification of records
keeping pace with the police and other
authorities bent on checking the in
creasing thefts of cars and the re-
sultant increase in expenditures in
their recovery
Practically every large city has a
special department at police headquar-
terS which occupies itself with moth
ing but the recovery of stolen cars.
The men are working night and day,
81 and reports of thefts are received
" every hour. Despite this activity of
the police, insurance companies and
\ other bodies, the recovery of stolen
cars is becoming more and more diff
. fcult, due to the inventive genius of
the automobile thieves, according to
q staff writer of the New York Her
aid Tribune.
Lock Your Car.
The main difficulty in prevention Of
thefts, the police find. is educating the
car owner to the need of always lock-
ing his automobile even if he leaves
1t but for a minute
Automobile thieves usually are or
ganized into large and well ordered
gangs, the police have discovered, and
their occupation has been developed
into a real business. the network of
which extends in many directions.
The reduction of automobile thefts,
the police believe. also would lead to a
rsduction in other lines of crime, as
the automobile is becoming ever more
necessary in aiding the criminal in his
exploits.
The automobile thief, according to
the police, is simply civilizations off
spring of the horse thief. And in this
connection, civilization, they com
plain, has been unjust in differentiat-
ing between the punishment of the
horse thief and his successor. The
thing that makes apprehension of the
automobile bandit more difficult than
capturing a common burglar is that
the automobile thief escapes with his
loot and leaves none of it behind him
to furnish evidence or clues.
New Trade Springs Up.
Once escaped with the loot, many
and devious methods of disposal and
DISBURSEMENT are employed by the car
litter" There is the crooked dealer,
hthe crooked owner, the ''go-between"
and the carefree bootlegger to aid in
the disposal. OF recent years, there
has sprung up a new trade-that of
engine number changer, which spe-
cializes in Disgusting stolen automo-
hiles.
The method of recovery employed
by police and motor vehicle bureaus
of the State is detailed work requir-
ing much skillful detecting. When
an automobile is reported stolen the
record card of the registered owner is
consulted for information giving en-
CINE serial and plate numbers. These
facts, a slim basis to work on, are
broadcast to the precinct police sta
tons and detectives start upon their
apparently wild goose chase in
search of the missing car.
Sometimes one of these stolen cars
Is perceived at an auction of used ma
chimes when willy detective. alert to
notice a too-eager vender, asks a few
pertinent questions. In other cases
reports from out-of-town garage men
that a certain well dressed individual
Is disposing of cars with unrea sonable
frequency leads to arrests and recov-
cry of stolen goods.
Naturally, police are averse to dis
closing their pet and most effective
methods of outwitting the robbers,
since they realize that the robbers
are increasingly more inventive on
CEIIillIldl lilies DIS LilG DOllCG OECOIllC
more adept in detecting.
Of late there has come into vogue
among the motor car borrowers" the
plactice of taking out licenses before
contemplated theft. This idea, it is
explained by some expert thief catch
ers, allows q robber to escape mo-
mentary suspicion when he is asked
! for the record pertaining TO an auto
mobile which he has recently stolen.
By the time the real owner has regis
tered his loss and established his own
ership the thief probably has put
Safe between him and the street
from which he borrowed" the car.
Ask Garage Men to Aid
In order to combat the criminal ga
rage owners practice of disposing Of
stolen cars, Police Commissioner Nc
I,oughlin of New York urged the CO
operation of all garage men in defeat
ing this purpose last Summer. Under
the new system in New York each
garage owner receives Il printed list Of
al cars reported stolen and he is ex-
pected to be on the watch for stolen
automobiles and report his findings to
the police.
The connection between car stealing
and other crime was pointed out re-
Gently by r. L. Calder, former attor-
ney for the district of Montreal He
believes that the stolen automobile is
tire basis of all modern criminal op.
erations.
AN automobile and chauffeur, or a
series of them, are essential to quick
getaway after crime" is Mr.. Cald-
ers opinion. THE position Of the au-
tomobile thief today is similar to that
OF the horse thief In the old days of
the West. They used to hang a horse
thief, not because of the value of the
horse. but because he used the horse
10 escape the scene of his crime"
fss..;o bodies are also iYoapCed oy-nt.