ATLANTA — Fulton County police are cracking down on thieves who steal broken-down cars from the interstate.
Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer found it happened to hundreds of metro area drivers last year. The crooks have the perfect cover, because they’re driving tow trucks.
Marion Kendrick was already having a bad day on Nov. 2 when his 1997 Isuzu Rodeo died along Interstate 20.
"It just stopped, I couldn't crank it up," said Kendrick.
But when he went back to pick it up the next day, he spotted it hooked to the back of a tow truck, driving away.
"I just couldn't believe it. I said, 'Man what's going on?'" he said.
He tried to chase the thieves but lost them. He reported his car stolen to Fulton County police later that day.
"The car is gone, it's melted down by that point," said Capt. Wade Yates.
Yates told Fleischer that drivers were reporting more and more inoperable cars stolen, so investigators set up bait cars along the interstate and waited for tow trucks to take them.
"Did you try to steal that car?” Fleischer asked Rodney Dickey, as Fulton police officers walked him to a patrol car.
“No. A customer called me to come pick the car up," said Dickey.
But police said there couldn't have been a real customer because the car is owned by law enforcement. Dickey was caught with it hooked up to his tow truck.
"We've had five arrests directly linked to the bait car, but the investigation that started has been extremely successful," said Yates.
Two of those arrests happened in front of the Intonu recycling center in South Fulton County.
Investigators got a court order for a list of every vehicle crushed in 2010 at that center, Newell Recycling in East Point and Pick-A-Part in Fairburn.
They found nearly 270 cars that had been reported stolen.
"The car was only there for six hours and it just disappeared into thin air," said Lakeena Riddick of her missing Mitsubishi Gallant. It broke down along Interstate 285 in DeKalb County.
"Who takes a car that's not working?” said Riddick, “It just doesn't make sense!"
But it does make dollars.
One tow truck driver let Channel 2 ride with him undercover as he dropped off an old car at Newell Recycling. He walked away with $347 in cash without even showing the title.
If a car is at least 12 years old, the tow truck driver doesn’t have to prove he owns it.
Channel 2 contacted the major metro police departments and found nearly 300 inoperable cars reported stolen from interstates last year. No one is required to check and see if they were crushed.
"It makes me very, very, very mad," said Riddick. "If it's not in your name, then you shouldn't be able to crush the car, period," she said.
Fulton County police already have 41 suspects, including Robert Overby, who was arrested last Thursday.
When asked if he stole cars and took them to salvage yards, he replied, "Hell no."
He's charged with theft by receiving a stolen vehicle and altering or forging a title. Investigators got his name from one of the recycling centers.
"I don't steal cars. I got titles on every car I have," said Overby.
"There's recyclers in other jurisdictions other than ours. So if we're having this big of a problem, I'm sure metro wide it's a huge issue," said Yates.
Investigators said the car crushers do serve a purpose because there has to be some way to dispose of legitimate junk cars. The recycling centers aren't breaking any laws by taking older cars without titles. Officers are hoping legislators will change that. Drivers left with no way to get around say the crooks shouldn't be able to get around the law.
"They need to be caught and the full extent of the law needs to be dropped on their head," said Kendrick.