Good job, officer!
Car thieves suck, but thankfully there’s a police officer in Atlanta who’s taking a huge bite out of crime. Terry Holmer has recovered a whopping $1.7 million in stolen cars just since the beginning of April of this year. That’s amazing, but it also indicates just how bad the problem of car theft has become in Atlanta as well as other cities.
Learn why one man stole over 50 luxury cars here.
Just like with many things, competition has brought out the best in Holmer. According to his superiors, he and Officer Ricardo Jones have a friendly competition going. Jones has a knack for finding drugs and guns, while Holmer can sniff out stolen cars.
If you’re wondering, $1.7 million equals 37 stolen cars recovered by Holmer. Many of those are expensive vehicles, so that’s how it totals to so much. It seems the officer has a nose for sniffing out boosted rides, saying finding them makes him “excited” since he’s “able to help someone recover their vehicle they might have lost.”
As the lead for the department’s Zone 5 tactical traffic unit, Holmer gets plenty of opportunities to locate stolen cars in Atlanta. The department even sent him to some specialized training, plus his superiors say he puts in time looking for vehicles even when he’s not on the clock.
Holmer says he can just sense when a car is stolen, thanks to certain “red flags” he won’t elaborate on for obvious reasons. The man is also very good at uncovering when VIN tags have been altered, even if the alterations have been done expertly.
We’ve covered the topic of increased car theft for some time. If you drive something collectable and therefore valuable, you can be at greater risk of being a target. There are a number of steps you can take to protect your ride, like using a Faraday cage for your keys if it has keyless entry, parking in a secured garage at night, installing an alarm which notifies your phone when tripped, and using a GPS locator in the event it is stolen.
Source: WSB-TV 2
