Sunday, October 24, 2010

Older cars more vulnerable to theft

From the Daily News:

When car thieves prowl the streets of Queens, they aren't just looking for shiny sports cars.

They are also targeting work vans and broken down sedans that sit in driveways, police officials said Tuesday.

"Forty percent of stolen cars citywide are older vehicles," said Assistant Chief James Secreto, commander of Patrol Borough Queens South.

"They are easier to steal," Secreto told Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and community board district managers yesterday during a meeting at Borough Hall. "They are heavier when they take them to the [scrap] yards to crush them and get top dollar."

Recent statistics show that vehicle thefts are up more than 14% in southern Queens precincts and 9% in northern Queens during the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year.

Assistant Chief Diana Pizutti, commander of Patrol Borough Queens North who attended the meeting, conceded that grand larceny auto is "rearing its ugly head again."

In 1990, more than 50,000 grand larceny auto thefts were reported in the borough. Last year, the number was closer to 3,300.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Many new car thefts are insurance jobs or people who leave their cars unnattended running.Some ultra luxury vehicles are stolen from garages or towed.As far as chief pizutti,she couldn't find a jew in williamsburg.

Anonymous said...

Lolz... Sounds reasonable. They used to pull something similiar when I was in LI. People would set their houses on fire on purpose to collect the insurance. I'm guessing its done in Forest Hills too because there isn't a night where I don't hear the Fire Dept. Then again, i did see the chief aimlessly drive in circles blaring the siren one day which was disturbing. He went up and around my neighborhood, no fire in sight and finally stopped driving around in circles 2 min. later. I seriously hope he had a good reason for that.