Recovered Stolen Vehicles

A: When taking a car that the cop is sure is stolen, or there’s enough reason to think it might be, and the car is in good enough shape to be driven, the cop will then call the police info center, and they’ll try to get in touch with the person that owns the car. If the owner can make it out to the scene soon enough, and they have enough ID to make sure it’s actually theirs, they can take back the car. If the info center can’t get in touch with the owner or the car just can’t be driven, then it should be towed away. There’ll be a hold on the car until the situation has been dealt with.

B: If a car is gonna be given back to the owner at the actual scene, it’ll have to be processed by a cop who has gotten training in fingerprint reading. Procession is basically looking for evidence like fingerprints or tools and the collecting it. If they find somebody that might have been related to when the car was stolen, and there’s enough reason to, they should be arrested. All new info found should be written down on the file they already made for the stolen car, and if anything is said to be taken from the car, those items should be written down too.

C: If a car was stolen outside of town and then found in town, it should be removed with a police department wrecker and a report should be filled out. If a suspect gets arrested, the cop can go into the car. Also, like before, a list should be made of all the stuff said to be stolen from the car.

D: Cops should only enter the license plate info on and in the car. They’ll also have to write down how many license plates were found in the car. This is important because the cop will have to run the license plates through the system to see which cars they’re registered to, because, of course, putting a license plate on a car it isn’t registered to is illegal.

E: On their report, the cop will have to say if it looked like there was any signs of forced entry, if they found the keys, and how the vehicle got stolen. The VIN number also needs to be checked to see if it was tampered with.

F: The Commercial Auto Theft Unit is in charge of cars like semi-trucks, trailers, bobcats or construction vehicles. Cops assigned to these kind of stolen cars should call this unit ASAP. If it’s late at night, there is always a detective for the unit to call as well.