Police: Towns ‘plagued with high-end auto thefts’

The recent theft of five brand new Jeeps from a lot on West Putnam Avenue yielded high-end profits for what was a fairly lowtech crime.

Earlier this month, thieves managed to force their way into a locked box at a small lot on the automotive stretch of Greenwich’s west end used as a transportation drop-off by Greenwich Chrysler Jeep, according to the auto-theft specialist at Greenwich Police Department; with keys from the box, thieves made off with the vehicles.

It was a fairly common story, said Detective Anthony Fiscella, one that police around the region have seen before.

“They hit a key box that is accessible and then pry it open,” said Fiscella.

Calls and messages to Greenwich Chrysler Jeep were not returned.

“It’s not just Greenwich,” Fiscella said. “It’s Darien, Westport — they’re all plagued with highend auto thefts.”

Around the country, a number of car dealerships have been hit by thieves looking to steal keys — and then cars. A theft at a Chicago-area dealership, recorded on video, resulted in 14 cars being stolen earlier this year. A Detroitarea dealership had some $250,000 worth of cars stolen last year, after thieves pushed “blocker vehicles,” cars intended to shield high-priced cars, out of the way.

While the theft of multiple cars at one time is relatively uncommon, it is part of a larger trend involving ongoing organized crime rings of professional car thieves, police said. Thieves are targeting dealerships as well as high-end luxury vehicles in residential neighborhoods, which is a bigger problem for local law enforcement.

“The crux of our problem is we’re being burdened by organized ‘steal’ crews,” said Fiscella, adding that the organized crime rings, centered in New Jersey, are “gang related.”

Typically, he said, “Younger members are used to perpetuate the crimes or thefts.”

Eric Sandstrom, a vice president at Cadillac of Greenwich and Maritime Chevrolet in Fairfield, knows all about the effort to steal cars and parts from dealerships, a criminal trend that became a serious problem several years ago in the field, he said.

“It’s been ongoing,” he said, with thieves also going after wheels, tires and catalytic converters in particular.

In late 2021, a shipping hub in Newark was raided by police, and numerous stolen cars were recovered. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the vehicles are typically left in an open parking lot for several days, to wait and see if law enforcement authorities have tracked them. If not, the cars are then loaded onto

a container ship bound for West Africa. In 2014, 160 stolen cars worth $8 million were recovered in New Jersey, and 23 alleged car traffickers were arrested.

According to a statement from CBP, “sophisticated organizations” with “transnational criminal networks” are responsible for the car thefts across the country.

Sandstrom said his business has substantially upgraded security at the dealership over the past several years.

“I have motion sensitive LED lights that light the property up like a ball field,” he said. He has also invested in a high-end video monitoring system, “and someone in Nebraska is monitoring our cameras and suspicious activity.”

Sandstrom said most dealerships in the region have installed fencing in recent years.

“You need good defenses,” he said, “But if someone wants something bad enough, they’ll find a way.”