Auto thefts up sharply last year

Weak penalties, lazy thieves and shaved keys are blamed for a spike in car thefts last year.

After remaining steady for two years, that crime jumped 28 percent in the city of Spokane last year, police officials said. The county saw a 13 percent increase in 2006.

The bottom line for the increase in car theft, authorities say, is which car thief is out of jail at any given time.

“There are no serious consequences,” said Larry Stevens, a crime analyst for Spokane police. The average jail time for stealing a car is about six months, authorities say. “Then they are back out stealing cars again.”

Car thieves generally stick with the vehicles they know.

In December, Spokane police and sheriff’s deputies reported a run of Nissan thefts. After they arrested a man and his girlfriend in January, the spree stopped.

The top three models stolen are Honda Civics, Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords, all from the late ‘80s to mid-‘90s, city and county authorities said. They’re easier to break into than most late-model cars.

“The thieves get shaved keys, and one key fits multiple cars of each make,” Stevens said.

Authorities suggest using a steering-wheel club in older vehicles to prevent theft, Stevens said. “There are so many older cars that if there’s a club on one of them, the thieves just move on to the next one.”

Cars are sometimes stolen for parts, sometimes money.

Sometimes thieves “use these cars to go get their drugs, then they dump the cars,” Stevens said.

And sometimes, a car is taken just for a joy ride.

“The older cars are used just to get from one place to another,” Stevens said. “Even guys getting out of jail will find a car in the parking lot and steal it.”

Often, a stolen car is found with an empty gas tank, and another car has been taken nearby.

Spokane resident Mary Wissink recently found a 1988 Toyota behind her parents’ home in the North Central neighborhood. The car was unlocked, so Wissink pulled out the registration, found the owner’s number in the phone book and called, and learned the car had been stolen in Hillyard.

“The person was overjoyed that I found the car,” Wissink said. “The car even had a quarter of a tank of gas in it.”

Pickups make the list of frequently stolen vehicles in Spokane “because this is truck country,” Stevens said.

Last spring, thieves stole Julie Markquart’s purse from one of her two pickups parked in the garage at her Spokane Valley home. The thieves returned later in the day and stole the other pickup, a new Toyota Tundra, apparently using the keys that were in the purse.

She and her husband discovered the theft the next morning. Julie Markquart tracked the thief’s activity online through the activity on her own credit card.

“They had used a credit card at gas stations about four times overnight,” she said.

Two days later, the Tundra was found by sheriff’s deputies at an apartment complex in Spokane Valley.

“They put about 1,200 miles on it,” Markquart said. “They took two tires and rims, and burnt a hole in the seat,” losses that were covered by insurance.

Stevens said that, like the Markquarts’ pickup, “most the cars are found, but the thieves aren’t caught.”