I had a truck and a motorcycle stolen in a small town in Wyoming. Another 11 vehicles were stolen in 1 week in the same town. Some were caught on tape.
Police told me the thieves were likely a group from Mexico with a way to get either whole vehicles, or parts, across the border. And that they were moving through the region. Spend a few days in a town, pick all the low hanging fruit, get it back across the border, and never have to go back to that town again.
I can't say what's true, but that's what the police said. To me, it seems like it'd be very difficult to get whole vehicles across the border, but if you could, the rest of that strategy would play out great. Spend a week or two casing some sleepy town for targets, steal them all in a few days, and get the hell away and never come back.
Let's take for granted that the passing it to Mexico bit is significant in the numbers of stolen cars near the Mexico border.
That makes what's happening in Washington DC or Oregon positively disturbing, as they'd have an issue at a bigger scale than states where it's basically international organized crime that orchestrates the thefts...
I suspect the commonality (barring DC) is that these areas have cheap real estate where you can drive the car quickly to the garage and break it down before anyone even knows it's missing.
I really don't understand why DC, though. Is there a coordination problem with surrounding states if a car is reported stolen that makes stealing cars easy (DC is not a state, per se, as it is more of a federal protectorate-thingy)?
My best guess (and again I want to reiterate that this is all hearsay told to me by the police) is that those communities are more aware of these types of activities, and therefore the fruit is not quite as low-hanging as a sleepy Wyoming town.
Police told me the thieves were likely a group from Mexico with a way to get either whole vehicles, or parts, across the border. And that they were moving through the region. Spend a few days in a town, pick all the low hanging fruit, get it back across the border, and never have to go back to that town again.
I can't say what's true, but that's what the police said. To me, it seems like it'd be very difficult to get whole vehicles across the border, but if you could, the rest of that strategy would play out great. Spend a week or two casing some sleepy town for targets, steal them all in a few days, and get the hell away and never come back.