It’s happening in Florida, California, New Jersey and Texas. More and more burned cars are turning up in tow yards these days. These are cars reported stolen from their owners, but law enforcement says it’s the owners themselves who are committing the crimes.
“Ordinary people are hiring others to torch their vehicles,” says Paula Dow, Essex County prosecutor in New Jersey.
Why? And who's doing it? Prosecutors in Newark, New Jersey have some answers.
“They're all types. But it really is Jane and John Q. Citizen that is doing it,” according to Michael Morris, asst. prosecutor in Newark.
Among the perpetrators, a convicted elementary school principal, and a businessman and a Dallas chiropractor who both plead guilty to attempted insurance fraud.
Driven, investigators say, by economic desperation to commit 'owner give ups'. That's when an owner reports their vehicle stolen, but actually stages the theft and torches the car to collect the insurance money.
“We've seen an increase in the number of vehicles that have been given up by owners,” says Det. Tom Reilly, Dallas County Sheriff's Department.
While there are no national numbers, Detective Reilly says that suspicious auto theft reports are up 12% this year in Dallas County.
In New York, the number of people who were arrested for suspicion of making a false auto theft report increased from 96 in 2007 to 130 in 2008, according to the New York Alliance Against Insurance Fraud.
But don't take Tom Reilly's word alone. Listen to the owners themselves, like John McCreey, the chiropractor who pleaded guilty.
“I made a lot of mistakes…the result of it's affected me financially.”
And Arthur Stewart, “When you do something you have to think of the consequences.”
Det. Reilly says the owners agreed to be videotaped as part of their plea agreements. He uses the tapes for a public awareness campaign.
“What better way than hear the words from people that committed fraud,” says Reilly
The latest numbers are disturbing. Exclude Essex County, where Newark is located, and New Jersey only prosecuted about 25 vehicle arson cases in 2007. Include Essex County and that number more than triples to 79 for the same period.
What are officials in Essex County doing to combat those numbers?
“We are aggressively prosecuting the wrong-doers here… We will prosecute those who hire as well as those who set the fire,” says Dow.