LITTLE ROCK — When Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola’s sport utility vehicle was stolen from outside a downtown restaurant June 4, the tan 2003 Ford Explorer blended into traffic and has not been seen since.
Little Rock and North Little Rock police say such status for Stodola’s car reflects a common outcome for vehicles stolen in the two cities.
Speculation as to where the mayor’s vehicle may have ended up can touch on its being stripped, sold or parked where it sits unnoticed, but as Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings put the bottom line, “Some just disappear.”
“That’s true for any stolen car,” Hastings said. “There’s a lot of options that can happen to them.”
Car, truck and motorcycle thefts around the country have declined in recent years as older vehicles are replaced on the roads by those equipped with antitheft devices.
The Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area has followed the national downward trend, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which identifies vehicle theft “hot spots” around the country. In 2009 there were 2,716 vehicle thefts in the area, down from 3,321 in 2008.
Frank Scafidi, a spokesman for the insurance crime bureau, said some parts of Arkansas and their respective police departments have seen a minor increase in car thefts, including Jonesboro and Fayetteville. But the number of thefts remains so small that it shouldn’t “keep people awake at night.”
“If I was concerned about auto theft, I’d much rather live in Arkansas than California,” he said.
Hastings said Little Rock has seen a steady decline leading up to this year, with 181 vehicles reported stolen in the first quarter compared with 230 in that same period in 2009. But even with the decrease, it’s hard to catch all of the car thieves, he said.
Of the thefts in this year’s first quarter, only 25 arrests were made, a clearance rate of 13.8 percent. During the same time period last year, Little Rock police made 36 arrests, a clearance rate of 15.7 percent.
Hastings said one of the biggest reasons the clearance rates are so low is that many officers are forced to charge people they stop in stolen cars with theft by receiving. The crime carries the same punishment but doesn’t connect the individual with the actual theft of the car.
“We can’t prove that you’re actually the one that stole it, but we can prove that you’re in possession of it,” he said.
Detective Michael Blevins, North Little Rock police’s one-man auto theft unit, said tracking down car thieves and charging them can be difficult, depending on a number of criteria, including the car showing up.
“If there’s not a lead, there’s just not a lot we can do,” he said.
Many car thieves simply take their vehicles to recycling plants around the city and sell them for scrap metal for between $4 and $6 per 100 pounds, earning about $168 for a 1983 Ford Bronco or $140 for a 2007 Honda CRV. The process is quick and easy, and the vehicles are out of the public eye and off the roads, without a chance for a police stop.
Blevins said he has seen cars that have been traded for drugs, stripped for parts or simply driven to the next town over when a criminal is stranded. Between joy riders and thieves trying to profit from their crimes, the detective said, he has a full plate.
Although the North Little Rock department has a “fairly good recovery rate,” Blevins said, official statistics aren’t kept on recovery or case clearance because he’s kept busy investigating cases. During an interview Tuesday, the detective had eight active cases sitting in front of him.
“It’s an all-day job, every day,” he said.
Central Arkansas also benefits from a lack of professional car thieves, who steal high-end vehicles and sell them on the black market. Pickups are still the most commonly stolen vehicle in the area.
“Some people look at Gone in 60 Seconds and stealing exotic cars,” he said. “You’re just not going to see that in Arkansas.”
Little Rock’s Hastings said a proliferation of anti-theft and immobilizing devices has had an impact on reducing the number of cars that get stolen each year, but locking your car is still the most important.
Many of the thefts Little Rock police investigate happened when owners left their cars running or unlocked with the keys accessible. When Stodola’s car was stolen, the mayor said he was in a rush and had probably left his car unlocked and threw his keys on the floorboard or the center console.
Stodola, who has been using a friend’s car while he waits for his insurance company to send him a check, said he’s now doing “everything he can” to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But he’s not bitter about his car being stolen.
“It happens to several people, and I just happen to be one of those people,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/21/2010