Word: auto
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...them fellow body builders -- would burn the identification plates and sell the scrap metal to a junkyard. The usable parts were then loaded into a rented 24-ft. Penske trailer and hauled to a salvage yard in West Hazleton, 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia. There, Wills' All-Brand Auto Parts received cash for the stolen goods. The FBI suspects, but cannot prove, that the salvage yard was placing orders to Wills to steal particular brands of cars...
...salvage yards communicate via an auto-parts telephone hot line. Some hot lines are statewide; others reach yards and body shops as far away as Florida or California. "I'm looking for a '91 Cadillac Seville left door," broadcasts one merchant. Before long, another responds, "I can fill that order." Fine, but does the seller have it in stock, wonders Kane, or will he arrange for a special-order theft? There's no way to tell, which makes the monitoring of hot lines by law enforcement virtually useless...
Some of the area's honest operators know where skeletons are buried, but they're not talking. "You snitch on people down here and no one will deal with you anymore," says Tom, a young, lanky employee with Patrick's Used Auto Parts, who refuses to divulge his surname. "I'd hate to come in next week and find our junkyard burned to the ground. Some of the people down here are pretty scary...
...financially strapped car owners. Not long after, the FBI revealed itself, Wills escaped and law enforcement officers have been tracking him ever since -- with no luck. The case, however, has sparked spin-off investigations that may bag some more chop-shop merchants, including a few ostensibly legitimate auto dealers, as well as "replaters," who transfer identification numbers from junked cars to stolen autos, passing them off as repaired and refurbished...
...fear may have more to do with the violation of expectations than with the threat itself. "People know they could be killed in an auto accident, so when they get into their cars, they aren't afraid of the 45,000 people getting killed on the highways," says Lawrence W. Sherman, professor of criminology at the University of Maryland. "But they don't expect to be attacked by criminals when they are in their cars; that's why the criminal attacks engender much more fear...