Let's See, Where'd I Park My Car?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 27, 1999

You'd think it might be a little easier to get around on urban roads these days. That's the image that comes to mind, anyway, in connection with a report that some 1.3 million of the nation's cars go missing each year. The situation has reached epidemic proportions, and police, insurance investigators and public prosecutors met recently in Dearborn, Mich., to try to figure out how to deal with it.

"Auto theft has become a highly organized and profitable international criminal racket," Dearborn Police Chief Ron Deziel told the Detroit News. The big market for stolen U.S. cars is said to be overseas, and thefts are the work of organized rings rather than amateurs and joy riders. The group that met in Dearborn, the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators, has members in 45 countries. So if your car isn't where you left it, you might want to check the side streets of some big city in one of those new countries that isn't even on a map yet. Good luck.