SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah, Sept. 26, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — With the dropping temperatures comes a dip, ever so slight, in local car thefts.
Sgt. Eric White, of the state of Utah’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division, paused Tuesday afternoon — after recovering a stolen vehicle and taking its driver into custody — to explain the ebb and flow and some estimated numbers to Gephardt Daily.
“We do random registration checks, and the car came back as stolen,” said White, after an armed confrontation with the driver, who was taken into custody at about 3300 S. State St.
“It increases a little bit in the summer and slows down in the winter,” White said of the thefts. “Just Salt Lake City alone takes 50-plus stolen vehicles a week, so that’s more than 200 (a month) in just Salt Lake City, then you got West Valley and all of the other ones, Midvale and the rest of the county. They’re probably doing a couple hundred, too. So we’re looking at probably more than 400 or 500 a month in stolen vehicles.”
White said thieves shave down keys for older popular vehicles, such as Hondas and Saturns, then they jam the keys into cars’ locks.
“It’s pretty easy to get a car started and on its way,” White said. “We can’t keep up.”
White said at that particular arrest, only the driver would be arrested on car theft charges, but others who had unrelated warrants would also be taken into custody.
