car thieves

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Sat 29 Sep 2001 22:58
car thieves - Alvin Booth
Some 20 odd years ago I was in a Prison reception when we had a professional car thief bought in.
Included in his property was a large bunch of car keys. After being processed we were chatting to him regarding his occupation.
He was given an order once sometimes twice a week by someone in the South what car was required, detailed down to colour etc.
He always targetted a cinema car park and when the correct model came in which could take several nights he would follow the occupants into the cinema to ensure they went in. The object of this was the time he knew he had to clear the county as he believed the police did not extend an all cars "look out" beyond county borders. He demonstrated how he would know within a few keys which one would open the door. These were held between several fingers and took seconds to operate. This was in the days when keys had numbers. He had a remarkable memory for them and asked what car model we had and what month/year. he could then give us the number to within a few on our keys.
He said he was caught because he was very tired having stolen one or two that week and he had gone into a layby to sleep in the dark thinking he was out of the county. He wasn't and was woken abruptly by the door being opened and dragged out. He had a three year sentence. I suppose today he would get a good telling off or perhaps counselling. I recall on release there was argument as to whether the keys were his property and whether we could retain them but don't remember the outcome.
Alvin
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Sun 30 Sep 2001 09:22
Re: car thieves - Dwight Van-Driver
Presumably they only charged him with take and drive away so they could not also charge with going equiped for theft, in which case order would have been made to forfiet the keys.
Another weird bit of law when we all know TDA is nothing but out and out theft and they get away with it as they claim they had no intention of permanently depriving the owner.
It's no consolation but if bad guy want your motor he is going to have it so make his task as difficult as you can. Think crime %-[
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