THIEVING OF CAES

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 147, 24 June 1933, Page 21

THIEVING OF CAES

AN AMERICAN "RACKET"

The arrest recently of the alleged leader of an "international ring" of motor-car thieves brought to public attention in the United States a campaign being waged all over the country to stamp out motor-car thefts. There is evidence that this form of racketeering is gradually being driven out, thanks to special Federal and State laws and to the vigilance of police' agencies. Motoring organisations, too, have co-operated, particularly by arousing automobile owners to the necessity of safeguarding their ears. Federal investigators gave an insight into the manner in which the car thieves operated when they reported finding in Trenton a plant replete with special machines for' disassembling automobiles and crating the parts preparatory to shipment to China, Persia, Siani, Norway, and other countries.,* The ring employed specialised workers for the expensive process of removing the motor and serial numbers from the car and substituting new ones. It also used counterfeiters to forge bills of sale and lading. The cars were then disposed of through the gang's representatives in foreign countries, or, more often, forwarded through an unsuspecting bank abroad. The extent of the car thieving reached in the United States may be gathered from the fact that, excluding cars "borrowed" and returned, 250,000 were stolen last year.