Why your car is less likely to be stolen

Published 11:09 pm Monday, February 23, 2009

MONROE — A Bellingham couple didn’t let not owning a tractor stand in the way of advertising that they had one for sale.

Police believe the pair placed a classified advertisement for a $23,000 Kubota tractor in The Herald three weeks before they helped themselves to someone else’s.

They waited until they had a buyer before stealing the equipment out of Pierce County, according to authorities. The couple sold the stolen tractor to their customer for $9,000 cash.

The deputy prosecutor with the Snohomish County Auto Theft Task Force recently filed a handful of charges against the former Everett couple, including trafficking in stolen property and possession of a stolen vehicle.

The pair also is at the center of two separate indoor marijuana-growing operations investigations in Everett and Bellingham.

The tractor theft case is among the dozens the task force has investigated since it started late last year. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Coleen St. Clair has filed charges against more than 60 people as a result of those investigations.

“If you’re an auto thief, we’re coming after you,” St. Clair said.

About 2,800 vehicles were stolen in Snohomish County last year. The thefts accounted for about $23 million in losses, St. Clair said. Nearly 24,000 vehicles were stolen statewide.

Vehicle thefts have drastically dropped off since 2005. Statewide there has been about a 45 percent drop in auto thefts. Snohomish County has experienced a similar decrease, St. Clair said.

She attributes the decrease in large part to tougher penalties for convicted car thieves. Lawmakers in 2007 approved lengthier sentences for repeat offenders.

In the past, a thief might have to rack up 10 prior auto theft convictions before seeing any prison time. Now, a third offense can land someone behind bars for nearly four years. A felon caught stealing cars or selling stolen parts may spend up to eight years locked away.

“A lot of the decrease in auto thefts is because the thieves are in prison,” St. Clair said.

Police agencies and prosecutors also have beefed up their efforts to crack down on thieves. Along with the tougher penalties, the 2007 legislation called for $10 from every traffic ticket to help fund auto-theft prevention.

The Snohomish County task force was launched in October with detectives from the sheriff’s office; Monroe, Lynnwood and Marysville police; and the State Patrol. An Everett police analyst also is assigned to the cadre.

St. Clair prosecutes the crooks.

The task force was fully operational in December, she said. That month they conducted 25 investigations and recovered 19 vehicles, worth nearly $240,000. St. Clair filed charges against 23 people. Since January she’s filed charges in an additional 43 cases.

They are tracking down car thieves stealing vehicles alongside the road and thieves who use the Internet to find their victims.

The tractor heist stretched across three counties and landed police in the middle of an indoor pot farm.

It also had a diversion into the parking lot of a Lake Stevens church.

The accused thieves are suspected of trying to rip off a tractor from the church around the same time they hijacked the Kubota down south. That theft was foiled when the church’s youth pastor found a man in the cab of the tractor fussing around with the ignition.

The man got off the tractor and drove off in a truck hauling a trailer.

A woman believed to be the man’s live-in girlfriend was parked in the lot. She was changing a young child’s diaper when the pastor asked her about the attempted theft. She told the pastor she didn’t know the would-be thief but drove off soon after he fled.

Meanwhile, the man who bought the Kubota tractor after responding to the newspaper ad became suspicious about the deal.

Detectives were able to trace the advertisement to the Bellingham couple. They raided their home. Police discovered two stolen trucks valued at nearly $75,000. They also found mail and financial information for dozens of people who reported being victims of burglaries and car break-ins.

More than 500 marijuana plants were seized from the home. Detectives also found a disturbing photograph.

The couple’s 2-year-old son was pictured pruning marijuana plants, court records show.

The man told police he used some of the proceeds from the stolen Kubota to finance the dope grow.

Police believe the couple moved to Bellingham after police searched their Everett home in 2007. During that raid, the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force found nearly 200 marijuana plants.

Car thieves often are involved in other crimes, St. Clair said. Many times stolen cars are used in robberies and burglaries. It’s not uncommon for stolen cars to be littered with stolen mail and personal information that can be used to commit identity theft, she said.

“We’re charging those crimes, too,” St. Clair said. “Auto thefts have a significant impact on people, on citizens.”

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.