Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/13/impressive-video-of-truck-pick.html
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That is indeed impressive.
They could have not left in the middle of the road though.
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The police should talk to these guys.
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I can understand leaving the cab because of VIN numbers, but don’t the driver’s side doors also have those or similar identifying marks?
I could be wrong. I’m getting that from Law & Order: Criminal Intent… 
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A family member used to tell a (likely apocryphal) story of how he once got a flat tire in a rough neighborhood in NYC in the early 1980s. After retrieving the spare tire and jack from the trunk, he closed the lid to find the car’s hood open and a guy with a wrench under the hood unscrewing things. When he asked the guy what he was doing, the guy said “Don’t worry, there’s enough here for both of us.” When he told the guy it was his car and he just had a flat tire, the guy politely apologized, screwed back in the pieces he’d started to remove, and casually walked away.
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In Wilson & Kelling’s 1982 article “Broken Windows” the authors report an experiment in social psychology from the 1960s:
Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, reported in 1969 on some experiments testing the broken-window theory. He arranged to have an automobile without license plates parked with its hood up on a street in the Bronx and a comparable automobile on a street in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked by “vandals” within ten minutes of its “abandonment.” The first to arrive were a family – father, mother, and young son – who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty-four hours, virtually everything of value had been removed. Then random destruction began – windows were smashed, parts torn off, upholstery ripped. Children began to use the car as a playground. Most of the adult “vandals” were well dressed, apparently clean-cut whites. The car in Palo Alto sat untouched for more than a week. Then Zimbardo smashed part of it with a sledgehammer. Soon, passersby were joining in. Within a few hours, the car had been turned upside down and utterly destroyed. Again, the ‘vandals’ appeared to be primarily respectable whites.
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The cab in the road doesn’t belong to the dude in the story-- it was just the same make stolen from the same city. I’d also posit that it was dropped off of a trailer in the middle of the night because car thieves aren’t dermestid beetles.
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That’s livable home here in Southern Cal.
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I once heard that thieves leave the abandoned car frame in an obvious location so that it is confiscated and sold at year’s end at the police auction. The thieves then show up, buy the frame at auction and then reassemble the car with its original parts. They now legally own the car. Not sure if that’s true.
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I used to do the Federal Marshal auctions here in San Diego, hit the jackpot a few times. The total stripped body[s] were sold for pennies, got a 1970 Carmen Gia body [hard top], flawless for $40.00. My Son is still driving that car, we assembled it together from 1995 - 2006, the Porsche 2.7 liter is a screamer, also got that at auction for $450.00.
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I guess one person’s “impressive” is another person’s depressive.
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So you’re a “truck’s half empty” kind’a guy?
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What, is the high brake light and lens assembly no good? Such waste… waste I tell you!
Crooks these days, so lazy.
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sounds like the police department needs to get a few bait cars of this make/model.
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Unlike the ones in Louis Ramey’s stand up routine (his experience in Detroit begins at the 10:27 mark):
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Yeah, but the rent would be so high that you’d still end up living in a shopping cart instead.
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My new punk band: Respectable Whites.
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If they’re so bad at life that they must steal cars they probably wouldn’t have the cash sitting around for this. I’m not saying it isn’t a great idea tho.
All they have to do is steal them using civil asset forfeiture. Much easier than doing honest work.
You have very little clue as to the business of car theft.
What @MBrody describes is a method of “VIN cleaning”. Because the frame has been discovered and sold at government auction, it’s no longer registered as stolen. Once reassembled, the car can be resold – even if the VIN is run, it comes up clean.
Even without that, there is a lot of cash in organized car theft. This isn’t about some kids out joyriding. This is organized theives selling stolen cars and/or parts. A good chop-shop makes money. Probably more than you do. A really good one definitely makes more.
Crime pays. That’s why people do it.
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