This is one of the slicker operations we’ve seen lately…
Police in Louisville, Kentucky have started cracking open a multi-million-dollar car theft ring that sounds incredibly sophisticated. According to one detective who spoke with local news station WLKY, police who stopped these vehicles for moving violations had no idea the cars were even stolen, so only a minor citation was issued.
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Obviously, authorities aren’t going to disclose all the details about how this theft ring has been hiding under the nose of police, but we do know these guys have been using the old trick of VIN cloning. That’s when you take a legitimate VIN and put it on a stolen vehicle, obscuring the sordid history so you can register the car without problems.
According to authorities, many of the cars come from Florida, particularly the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, but there are others with connections to Texas or Ohio. While they’ve netted millions in high-end vehicles, including a Bentley and multiple C8 Corvettes, and several people have been arrested, detectives believe the rabbit hole goes much deeper.
We wouldn’t doubt it. Often these operations have a national if not an international network of connections. And the organizations usually do more than just steal cars, with drug and human trafficking, shoplifting, and other criminal activity often in the mix.
Louisville police detectives are hopeful they’ll figure out key details like who actually stole the cars, how they were transported to the area, and who exactly is cloning the VINs.
The car theft epidemic that’s been sweeping the nation has of course affected people who own all kinds of rides. However, high-end luxury and performance vehicles are always a target. Not only do such options sell well on the black market, sometimes the thieves themselves just like joyriding in them, if not finding a way to keep them longer.
