Largest chop shop in past decade raided in Detroit

[davewindsor]

I'm surprised with all the talk about stolen cars on the forum that no one has mentioned the recent raid of the largest Detroit chop shop in the past decade at 10400 Lydon St. 179 cars seized. 87 confirmed stolen. Seems it's all over the Windsor news because a Windsorite was involved. They paid cash to anyone who brought in a car. Did anyone here get one of their cars back?

http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Wind...065/story.html

Windsorite faces charges over huge Detroit chop shop

179 vehicles seized in raid on Lyndon Street

By Dalson Chen, The Windsor Star August 4, 2012



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A 71-year-old Windsor man is facing felony charges in connection with Detroit's largest "chop shop" operation in more than a decade.
Detroit police raided Midland Used Auto Parts in the 10400 block of Lyndon Street on Thursday afternoon, resulting in the seizure of 179 vehicles, some of which were in the process of being taken apart.
As of Friday afternoon, at least 87 of those vehicles have been confirmed stolen - and the number is expected to rise.
Sgt. Robert Wellman of the Detroit Police commercial auto theft section said the bust was among the most massive he's seen yet.
"I've been doing auto thefts specifically for the last 13 years," Wellman said in a phone interview. "This is the largest amount of stolen vehicles that we've had at one location."
Detroit police won't release the name of the elderly Windsor suspect until arraignment - which is expected to happen on Saturday.
Wellman said the man owns the business, and the charges against him could carry a sentence of 20 years.
The Michigan Penal Code has a specific charge for running a "chop shop" - which is defined as an operation engaged in altering, dismantling, reassembling, or disguising a stolen motor vehicle or stolen vehicle components.
Wellman said the suspect also faces charges of receiving and concealing stolen property.
"People were bringing the vehicles to him, and he was paying cash for them," Wellman said.
Employees of the man were allegedly disassembling the stolen vehicles into parts for online resale.
After the vehicles had been picked clean, the remains would be crushed and sold for scrap, Wellman said.
Wellman said most of the seized cars were older mid-range vehicles, with model years from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.
Among the confirmed stolen items: a 2002 Jaguar, a 1999 Jeep, and various Dodge Intrepids.
Also seized were a bulldozer, an earthmover, and a motorhome - although, as of Friday, it hadn't been confirmed that these items were stolen. "They still need to be identified," Wellman said.
Asked how such a large operation could go on seemingly unnoticed, Wellman pointed out that the business is a fenced property with significant acreage.
"It was being set up as a junkyard," Wellman said.
Investigators are still trying to determine how long the alleged chop shop side of the business was running. Wellman said he doesn't believe it was very long - officers previously visited the site within the past year and found no sign of stolen vehicles.
Wellman credited a combination of police work and tips from the public [[through Michigan's Help Eliminate Auto Thefts program) for the information that led to the raid.
"The investigation is always continuing," Wellman said. "At this point right now, we don't have anybody else that we're looking at for arrest. But [[the case) is ongoing."

[Zacha341]

Yeah, this place seemed like the drive thru in-and-out of car theft. Everything you wanted, drive in drive out with parts and what not. Tow-in of all matter of cars, trucks - stolen! Good it was busted, perhaps a dent in car thefts?

[muskie1]

Yeah, this place seemed like the drive thru in-and-out of car theft. Everything you wanted, drive in drive out with parts and what not. Tow-in of all matter of cars, trucks - stolen! Good it was busted, perhaps a dent in car thefts?

A 70 plus Windsor man. Shut down the border or make the Canadians prove why they are here. Sorry just this is crap, our weakest friend is Canada, little to give

[warsaw7]

Shut down the border or make the Canadians prove why they are here. Sorry just this is crap, our weakest friend is Canada, little to give

This may be flagged as one of the worst comments on DYES. Seriously just get out of the pool right now....

[GUSHI]

This may be flagged as one of the worst comments on DYES. Seriously just get out of the pool right now....

I have to agree with you

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Yeah, this place seemed like the drive thru in-and-out of car theft. Everything you wanted, drive in drive out with parts and what not. Tow-in of all matter of cars, trucks - stolen! Good it was busted, perhaps a dent in car thefts?

When they shut one down, another starts up somewhere else. They're never going to totally shut down chop-shops. Just like the government lets 1 out of every 5 drug shipments slide through customs.

[davewindsor]

When they shut one down, another starts up somewhere else. They're never going to totally shut down chop-shops. Just like the government lets 1 out of every 5 drug shipments slide through customs.

No, there's no such thing as a crime free city. Obviously, it's an impossible goal. But, these raids are an excellent deterrence in reducing car theft in the city. While it seems the need for another chop shop might replace the lost one in a free market system, chop shops are just like any legitimate business in that they need to look at their return on investment.

If it costs at least half a million to set up a chop shop--buy industrial land and get environmental permit approval to let oil from old cars leak onto land, fencing and a security system, building a garage, insurance, payroll, buying tools and equipment to remove the parts, having another building to store the parts, metal compactors and bulldozers to destroy the remaining evidence that couldn't be sold as an auto part, buying the vehicles, setting up buyer logistics--an enterprise would also have to look at what their return on investment was before they would get raided and loose their half a million dollar investment to seizure.

If the news reported that the police raided a chop shop every month, there probably wouldn't be a lot of them in town anymore as shop owners would be a lot more worried about getting caught and become a lot more cautious about loosing their investment and, consequently, there would be a large reduction in annual car thefts in the city as the car thieves would have an almost impossible time unloading stolen thousand dollar Aleros, and chop shops would probably only deal exclusively with high end luxury cars as there would be a much higher payback on their investment and a lot less inventory to keep track of. Thus, the police regularly raiding chop shops and reporting it in the news would act as a deterrence and significantly reduce car thefts in this city.

[Hypestyles]

-- so what happens to the land property after a bust like this? The city owns it? how can steps be taken where it doesn't just happen all over again?

[kenp]

Asked how such a large operation could go on seemingly unnoticed, Wellman pointed out that the business is a fenced property with significant acreage.
"It was being set up as a junkyard," Wellman said.
."

There is no way they didnt know about this place. A lot of people made money on this

[Cincinnati_Kid]

While I agree with most of what you're saying davewindsor, Chop-Shops have been around since my oldest brother was a kid, just not with the magnatude and profitability they currently have. You may be able to curb it to a degree, but they will never go totally away. Vehicles will always be stolen, then and now, and there will always be people who profit from it. It's so much corruption
going on in Detroit, you never know, maybe some important people could be involved.