Police recover 12 stolen cars in two weeks

Police said a total of 12 cars were stolen for the year thus far at gunpoint and all were recovered over the past two weeks, thanks to an aggressive campaign launched by the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) and the Police Stolen Vehicles Squad.

A senior police officer told Newsday on Wednesday that police found the latest vehicle, a Kia Sportage, at a bushy area in Never Dirty, Morvant at around 1 pm on Tuesday. The car was reported stolen by it’s owner in St Joseph at around 5 am.

The exercise was led by Snr Supt Michael Daniel of the CID, ASP Mervyn Edwards and was co-ordinated by Sgts Swamber and St Claire together with Corporals Caesar, Kamal and Dolloway with assistance from Constables Forgenie, Lezama, Holloway, Hinds, Armstrong and WPC Jackson.

Police said criminals were becoming more resourceful, using handheld electronics called jammers and scramblers used to prevent car alarms from going off and are calling on drivers to exercise greater caution.

Speaking with Newsday, the officer called on the public to avoid leaving their keys in the ignition while going into stores and leaving children or the elderly unsupervised. He also called on drivers to place personal markings in discrete parts of their cars to help identify it if it was stolen and later recovered.

He said the Stolen Vehicles Unit was taking on a more intelligence-driven approach to finding vehicles and pledged to take the fight to car thieves.

“Precautionary measures should be taken at night and in broad daylight. These scramblers can scramble the signal from your car keys preventing the alarm from going off. These things can be easily bought.

“After the drug trade, the stolen vehicle trade is the largest criminal industry in Trinidad. In every crime a stolen vehicle is used for a quick getaway and they use cars that can be easily overlooked.”

He said members of the Stolen Vehicles Squad were committed to preventing the theft of vehicles and finding those that were stolen.