In my local news recently, there was a Ford dealer that had 8 new vehicles stolen from their lot one night. What do criminals do with brand new stolen vehicles? It seems like it would be hard to unload a brand new stolen vehicle.
What happens to new stolen vehicles?
- Thread starter wavinwayne
- Start date
Ship them out of the country.
They end up in Africa
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2024
- Messages
- 262
Organized crime. aka, the government
This story is from Canada, but the same thing probably happens in the USA, too.
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2021
- Messages
- 3,592
Yep, I've been to IAA and Copart where theft recoveries are held in a certain area of the lot. You can see the theft rings will very delicately strip the vehicle. No damaged to the dashboard from sloppily pulled out radios or cut up seats.
Everything is disassembled carefully as if a mechanic would do it. The usual stuff is stolen including ABS modules, air bags, interior trim, entire suspensions, engine, you name it. Some of these cars are TOTALLY stripped and I've seen a few with frame rails cut off in the correct places to be used as collision parts lol. Who ever runs the show is making big bucks.
Is an Umpa Loompa the head of the local auto theft ring? Why are they named chocolate cars?
These stripped parts are put into shipping containers of course and sent over to the Middle East, Ukraine, Africa, the Caribbean etc. Shipping container contents mislabeled possibly reducing the already low odds of having it inspected by CBP. IIRC Dubai is a hot spot of vehicle laundering.
So I did a 'duck duck go' search, and this came up: https://fox5sandiego.com/news/borde...cars-flow-into-tijuana-from-california-daily/
It's true. Over 10,000 stolen cars per month end up as chocolate cars in Mexico (only from California). That's mind boggling. As far as why they call them chocolate cars, maybe the Umpa Loompas have something to do with it
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2021
- Messages
- 3,592
200 to 400 cars A DAY!?
Police should be standing near the exit checkpoints running VINs and tags as a deterrence.
The unsecured border we've had for 3.5+ years, presents LOTS of problems.
FWIR, I gather that there is a lot of theft to order.
Say I need a front clip to fix a fresh F150 that's been wrecked. Legit new parts are a gazillion dollars and yard parts are maybe 70% of that.
What if Tito can help me out with the needed parts for half of that? He makes money because he has very little cost in the parts. Some fool will always do the theft for cash and Tito knows where in the city to rent space the cops will never visit.
I make money taking what the insurer will allow, plus whatever supplementals I can get by with.
Receiving stolen property?
Naw, I could only assume that the guy had good contacts in the salvage business and could source parts for less than I can find them for since finding parts isn't my real job.
The shipment of stolen vehicles overseas is also a real thing. Of the tens of thousands of containers that leave the US every day, very few are opened up for inspection. Most inspection resources are devoted to stuff coming in anyway.
Say I need a front clip to fix a fresh F150 that's been wrecked. Legit new parts are a gazillion dollars and yard parts are maybe 70% of that.
What if Tito can help me out with the needed parts for half of that? He makes money because he has very little cost in the parts. Some fool will always do the theft for cash and Tito knows where in the city to rent space the cops will never visit.
I make money taking what the insurer will allow, plus whatever supplementals I can get by with.
Receiving stolen property?
Naw, I could only assume that the guy had good contacts in the salvage business and could source parts for less than I can find them for since finding parts isn't my real job.
The shipment of stolen vehicles overseas is also a real thing. Of the tens of thousands of containers that leave the US every day, very few are opened up for inspection. Most inspection resources are devoted to stuff coming in anyway.
More like the past thirty five years.
You've probably heard of NAFTA.
It was never a provision of NAFTA to allow the essential free-for-all that the Border has been allowed to become in the last 3.5+ years.
Several countries in Africa. Ghana I think is one doesn't check to see if the vehicles coming in are stolen or not.
