Stolen, Stripped and Scrapped: Hundreds of Cars Stolen in Pasco

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By Chelsea Kopta

Summary

The numbers just came out and the FBI reports thieves in Pasco stole 70 more cars last year , than the year before. That's a nearly 40 percent increase.

Story Published: Sep 18, 2008 at 5:40 PM PST

PASCO -- It's grand theft auto in Pasco.

The numbers just came out and the FBI reports thieves in Pasco stole 70 more cars last year , than the year before.

That's a nearly 40 percent increase.

When Pasco Police find a stolen car they call a handful of tow truck companies.

Action News talked to one of those companies, now making more money off the crimes.

"The guy got jumped and mugged,"John Lund said, a tow truck operator at Pasco towing about one of the calls he was dispatched to.

Smash and grab jobs are nothing new to Lund. He's seen it all in his big rig: cars dumped, stripped, burned and stolen.

"All in one night, they took the seats, all the interior, the stereo, the amps, the tires everything," Lund said. "The thing was just basically sitting on blocks. They did it pretty quick. They were like professionals."

The tow truck business is bittersweet if your car's been ripped off. More stolen cars means more business for tow trucks. And there's no doubt, things have picked up at Pasco Towing on Main Street.

Lund works at Pasco Towing seven days a week, and said Pasco PD calls his shop about five days a week to tow jacked cars.

They make up about a third of his business.

Action News Checked out the crime map numbers on the City of Pasco's website and 265 cars were stolen last year. There's a huge concentration in East Pasco.

John's constantly dispatched to Court Street and Road 68

"East, it's scary," Lund said.

After all of these calls to Lund's shop, is it a problem in Pasco?

"It depends of what you drive," Lund said.

Hondas are hot. Civics. Accords. Toyotas and Acuras too.

A few months back, Lund got a call from police about another ripped off ride. This time, it was his own, right off the lot.

His integra was stolen after workers brought the car out of the locked bullpen and into the general auction area.

Within two days, thieves had stripped it clean.

"When I came back and I saw that, I was very, very upset," Lund said. "From now on I'm just going to drive a car that's not hot."

Action New did call Pasco PD to see what they're doing about the spike in stolen cars, but we could not get ahold of them before airtime.

We did take a look at the numbers nationwide.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports a car is stolen once every 26 seconds. And stats show car theft is a bigger problem in the western states than anywhere else.

Yakima rates number nine in the nation.