Teens suspected in rash of car thefts

A series of a dozen car thefts reported in Jefferson County in the past month has local authorities combing the community in search of suspects.

Fairfield Police Chief Julie Harvey has ramped up her efforts to stop more cars from being stolen, saturating high theft areas with officers and sending them door-to-door seeking information.

?We owe it to people who?ve had their cars stolen,? said Harvey. ?A few people are upset we?re doing this, and many people thank us and tell us what they know.?

Harvey said evidence suggests a group of teenagers have been acting together to steal the vehicles, becoming increasingly emboldened.

?We think they?re a group feeding off each other,? said Harvey. ?At this point, it?s looking like they?re trying to one-up each other.?

All stolen vehicles have been recovered by local authorities, some with damage incurred, but not until this week did they find stolen cars, which had been totaled.

Sept. 1, authorities found a stolen Chevy pickup wrecked in a ditch off of Pine Avenue, with all windows smashed and no suspects on the scene.

?They were driving so recklessly they were flipping end over end,? said Harvey.

Monday, workers at a quarry owned by Douds Stone Inc. near Coppock reported finding a beige, 2000 Buick Century Custom wrecked on a ledge in the quarry pit. The Jefferson County Sheriff?s Office determined the car was stolen from a farm north of Lockridge. Special equipment will have to be used to remove the car from the quarry.

?At first they were taking cars and parking them somewhere, now they?re flipping cars and driving them recklessly,? said Harvey. ?They?re going to get someone killed ? Our [the Fairfield police?s] worst fear is we?re going to have to go to a death notification.?

She also fears catching the suspects could involve a police chase.

?Anytime they?ve been confronted by an individual they?ve ran,? she said. ?So the likelihood of a chase is extremely high unfortunately.?

Arresting a suspect would be a better outcome, said Harvey, but said they need probable cause, either through physical evidence or a witness.

The police have gathered fingerprints and DNA to send to the Iowa Department of Public Safety?s Division of Criminal Investigation lab, but Harvey said DCI can easily take six months to process the evidence.

?We?re not going to wait around,? said Harvey, who said the police are focusing on gathering witnesses in the meantime.

?If someone sees something or knows something, call the police,? she said.

One minor was arrested Sept. 1. and charged with stealing a 2004 Ford pickup from Batavia. The police withheld his name, as the suspect is part of an ongoing investigation.

?There are circumstance that lead us to believe the minor is associated with the other thefts,? she said.

A resident living on Salina Road witnessed what he called ?a group of kids? trying to steal his truck Saturday. The suspects were driving a Chevy Cavalier stolen from West Monroe Avenue, reported missing earlier that day. The truck owner chased the suspects, but did not catch them, pulling the window from the Cavalier as the suspects fled the scene.

Harvey said until suspects are convicted of the crimes in court, victims have no means to collect restitution for damage done to their vehicles.

Fairfield resident Denise Poole, 61, reported her 2001 Mitsubishi Galant missing Aug. 15. Poole had left the keys in her car.

?People who heard my car was stolen said, ?What? In Fairfield??? said Poole.

She said even though it was unwise to leave her keys in the car, she maintained, ?That?s how we live here, we trust people.?

Poole?s car was found in Eddyville five days later, where she picked it up. She didn?t get far, however before it broke down.

?I drove it an hour, and then it just crashed,? she said. ?And I?m pretty good at maintaining my car.?

When she took her Mitsubishi into an auto shop, the mechanic said it had been driven ?like it was in a NASCAR race.?

The car had gone through three quarts of oil, needed a new alternator, cam positioning sensor and new belts, which cost her nearly $1,400 to fix. Poole also reported $500 worth of personal belongings stolen from the car, including prescription glasses and jewelry.

Poole, who is self employed and who has collision insurance, didn?t have the money to fix her car.

?I would have been carless ? so I put a plea on Facebook,? she said. ?Over the course of the following week, I received donations from friends and a good chunk of it is now out of the way.?

She picked her car up from the mechanic Monday, and said she will be paying for the work in installments. She said she is grateful for the help she received and glad to hear no one was hurt while driving her car.

?It was very stressful,? said Poole, ?but I took it in stride ? I was grateful they didn?t hurt or kill themselves.?

The police department is staying in close contact with victims to collect receipts and bids, which can later aid in attaining restitution for damage.

She said if those convicted are minors, parents will be responsible for the costs or the minors can pay off the debt through community service approved by the clerk of court.

Harvey is concerned about the financial burden the car thefts are causing victims, but said they are impacting the community in other ways as well.

?The worst part is the peace of mind it takes from people,? she said.