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.
good thought on Turkey! or maybe just make the inmates wear panties on their heads. i have heard that is HORRID! lol
LOL. I was thinking the same thing. Stealing GM products! The kid sure was not thinking clearly!
sounds like a slide hammer.
I was trying to figure out if they were talking about something other than an ordinary slap hammer. That will pop the locks on most cars, not just GMs.
As easy as a hammer to a flat head screwdriver...and twist! LOL!
Plea bargains don't keep folks out of jail. They just delay it for a period of time. The DA gets a guy to plead to probation, and he saves the cost and effort of a trial where he's have to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Then you revoke the guy's probation on 'slight' evidence that he has committed a new crime or otherwise violated his probation.
Then you get him to plead to the new charges for time concurrent with his revoked sentence. Or perhaps some new probationary time, so you can repeat the cycle when he gets release.
It is an efficient use of taxpayer money.
Just what GM didn't need right now.
No, good news for GM. They finally found someone who WANTS their products!
The car companies are just as bad as thieves, IMHO.
I had to pay over $100. 00 for a new key for my Ford product after losing the original when my purse was stolen. New technology, computer chip, blah blah, etc. Of course, I could have filed with the insurance company, and seen my rates go through the roof. Detroit is rotting under the weight of all it's greed and graft, so why should anyone buy their products?
WAIT ONE MINUTE
Something isn't right here.
You can pop the lock on my truck all you want, the computer doesn't get feedback from the chip in a specific time frame, it shuts the vehicle down.
Cadiliacs use a more sophisticated system.
I smell something here.
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.
And this "device" works equally well on most Japanese vehicles...Hondas are among the top vehicles preferred by those who steal cars.
LOL
I remember using a slide hammer on a clutch bushing back in the early 1960s when I worked at a garage as a teenager, they certainly weren't new then.
Ask the victims if they would vote for "efficient use of taxpayer money" or incarceration of the criminal.
It isn't an either - or matter. Plea bargains result in an almost 100% conviction rate. Juries give you OJ Simpson results.
Yeah, for a greatly reduced amount of time for crime. That sucks.
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