Posted on 03/19/2006 9:49:19 PM PST by ferri
Winnipeg police have charged a 14-year-old boy with the thefts of five General Motors vehicles and other infractions, warning that owners of some other GM cars should also be on guard.
The teen was arrested Saturday after allegedly stealing two Chevrolet Avalanches, a Chevrolet Yukon and two Pontiac Grand Ams over two days.
But it's not just the alleged thefts that concern police officers – they're also worried about the way the vehicles were taken.
Winnipeg Police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Dennison said a device that pops the entire lock out of GM automobiles has been used during a number of car thefts.
Police warned the owners of Avalanches, Yukons, Chevy Trailblazers and Cadillac Escalades to invest in an anti-theft device.
Although the vehicles cost $40,000 or more, they do not offer much more protection than the average automobile, Dennison said.
The teenager can't be named under the provisions of Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Police officers said 13 of the charges that the teen now faces were violations of the conditions of a previous sentence.
Of course it is. Any new model that comes out with different locks than models before will have someone on the production line that passes on the lock-picking secrets to their chop-shop buddies.
There really isn't a single secure vehicle in the world, with only factory locks.
okay, i was just curious as i haven't read anything about the whole lock being popped out. must be really handy for the meth users and crackheads!
lol, nah... that takes too much time, and heck they only need 5 or 10 bucks for their fix!
I agree. There's no incentive for GM or any car maker to make your car secure. They get to sell another one to your insurance company when your's gets stolen.
:) i was just thinking about some of the videos i have watched at www.baitcar.com those guys can get into a car and get it going faster than i could with a key! lol
yup, funny thing is a slim-jim will open up just about 100% of the cars out there, regardless of the lock system. I know a tow truck driver or two and they knew of some guys that had chop shops.
What's wierd is that motorcycles aren't stolen more often, they are even easier.
The kid's got a good shot at an insanity defense.
The "device" that pops the entire lock out of a GM vehicle has been in use in this country for at least 25 years of which I am aware. In other words, it's nothing new.
Damn kids today and their low expectations....
I understand the youths turned themselves in when confronted with the need to fill the gastanks of those beasts at $2.90+ per gallon.
lol you guys are too funny!
It's a huge problem over in England, and the police don't even bother to try to solve the crimes. The bikes are simply loaded up into a van and carted off. There's a huge business for things to keep your bike bolted to the ground over there, but even those have their limits.
I read a motorcycle magazine article a few years back about a number of bike owners who were tired of having their bikes stolen with no help from the police, and they began taking matters into their own hands. They'd "plant" a bike in an out of the way place, and 5 or 6 of them would be waiting in a nearby van. When a few guys would come around and begin loading the bike into their van, the "good guys" would pour out of the van, in masks, grab the theives, and beat them severely, leaving them with broken bones (ribs, arms, and or legs). I'm not kidding, I'm talking about beating them with iron pipes. After a week or two, the remaining theives would move on to other areas, and so would "the good guys."
Frankly, I think that it's the fault of the police. While I'm no fan of vigilante justice, when the police refuse to do their job, sometimes you just have to take action on your own.
Yes, I believe that it's called a slide hammer. It's one of those "new fangled" tools that's only been around for centuries.
Mark
Not very comforting to see that Canada handles juvenile car thieves just like the U.S. In the slammer out of the slammer in the blink of an eye and back to stealing cars.
the one that REALLY got me was the cops busting a crack house, guy pulls up and pulls a knife on the cops, threatens them...they bust him after a little scuffle, a week later i read about the cops busting another crack house and THE SAME GUY shows up and assaults an officer!!! one week??? :-/
I thought all these new cars had Chiped keys now. Poping the lock won't do you any good on those.
I had never heard of a Chevrolet Yukon before.
Truly amazing. Merlin the Magician probably couldn't make these people disappear and reappear so quickly.
Who gets the blame for this? I believe it is prosecutors who plea bargain. However, full jails lead them to do this. So there is a big problem. One is, that criminals don't fear jail. Food, cable TV, access to internet, college courses, and top of the line exercise equipment. No fear there so they either sit it out in the big house or the prosecutors put them back on the street. Taxpayers are getting fed up with paying for bigger and better jails, especially for repeat offenders. When's it going to stop? Only when we contract our jails and inmates to Turkey. If this happened, you wouldn't see repeat offenders.
Replacement name for the full size Blazer.
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