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CONTACT THE HERALD
Robert Frank, City Editor
frank@heraldnet.com
 
Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009

County task force tough on car theft

Auto theft task force is recognized as the state’s best.

It looks like Snohomish County might be the worst place in the state for car thieves.

That’s because the Snohomish County Auto Theft Task Force has been recognized as the best team statewide for tracking down stolen vehicles, arresting those responsible and helping make sure the bad guys are convicted.

On Nov. 5, the Washington Auto Theft Prevention Authority recognized the Snohomish County team as the Auto Theft Task Force of the Year, the first time the award has been presented.

The Snohomish County team was selected from five other similar teams “due to the impacts that they have made in Snohomish County since forming in October of 2008,” said Snohomish County sheriff’s Lt. Brent Speyer, the team’s commander.

In the first half of 2009, vehicle thefts statewide were down 20 percent but in Snohomish County the reduction was 45 percent, Speyer said. Statistics show that the trend is continuing.

During the team’s first year, they tallied up impressive results. Nearly 100 people were convicted, about $680,000 worth of stolen vehicles were recovered along with another $337,400 worth of stolen property.

The team broke 31 theft rings and 24 chop shops, Speyer said.

The team is made up of detectives from the Washington State Patrol; Monroe, Marysville and Lynnwood police departments; and the sheriff’s office. The Snohomish County prosecutor’s office also has a specially assigned prosecutor and secretary to help prosecute suspects the team arrests.

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com.

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I'm sorry, I mistyped. We have video of her stealing my purse, not my car.
Colleen Webb | Nov 18, 2009 1:16 pm | 0 replies | Request removal

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County Task Force Tough on Car Theft
I read your article and felt the need to respond.

I just had my car stolen last week, on November 12th. I was at a sports bar, my purse was stolen, as well as my car. I called the Sno Co Sheriff. Deputy Humphries responded and called me on the phone to come outside. He handed me a piece of paper, told me I could go inside to fill it out and "try not to spill any beer on it". Very nice......When I came back out, we had the person's name, phone number and general area where she lived, as well as a security tape of her stealing my car. He was very unimpressed with this and said he'd "check it out". The next day, I went to the south precinct around 12:30 pm to see about my purse, as an employee told me they found it and turned in into a passing Sheriff. They said they knew nothing of it and couldn't find out about it. I had to wait for it to go to North Everett, if they had it. I then asked about my car, to which was met with the response, "it's not in our system yet but this lady here might be entering it". WHAT? It's been better than 12 hours! I was flabbergasted. I checked my bank account and my debit card had been used, within hours, 3 blocks from where my car was stolen from! And they're not even looking for it yet?! So, aggrevated, I left to get a new drivers license.

While sitting at a light on 112th & 99, my car drove in front of us down 99!! My fiance' chased down the car to Walmart on 99. The car was parked when we pulled in, so we called 911. The person then came out, got in, and tried to pull out. My fiance' backed out of our space, blocking my car with the one we were driving, jumped out, opened the stolen car door, grabbed the keys out of the ignition and held the guy in the car until the police got there. The person driving it was apprehended. It was not the person who stole it. They took the person, who was very questionable, into custody, with an amount of what looked to be stolen goods, in my trunk. The Everett Police said they were going to go to the house where the girl had given him my car. I found out yesterday this person was released, no one has been arrested and nothing has gone any further. Not sure why he was released, he was driving a stolen car with stolen stuff in it!

Now, since then, I have been trying to recover my purse from the police. No one knows where it is. It has never been checked into evidence with any agency and no one knows anything. I got a deputy yesterday that is going to send out an email to everyone that is on duty to find out, but I can't even get Deputy Humphries to respond to my phone calls to find out if he ever followed up on anything. There is now, a car thief out there, with the keys to my car and, it seems, no one is looking for her. I feel like no one really cares about arresting anyone, because I have my car back. I would love to see the person responsible in custody, as I have good video of her and the guy that was caught with my car knew who she was.

A citizen of Snohomish County

Colleen Webb | Nov 18, 2009 12:58 pm | 0 replies | Request removal

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