Tampa locksmiths have to stay vigilant to help their customers prevent car theft, and it is a good thing that there are so many good anti-theft devices on the market today, because thieves can become quite organized and sophisticated. It is one thing to try to protect yourself from random individuals who are not very savvy or experienced, but when you have organized theft rings doing business over a number of years, they can get pretty good at what they do.

“Car cloning” is a way that car thieves can sell the cars that they steal and have them appear to the buyer to be legal. They take the license plate, vehicle identification number, and other identifiers from a legal vehicle and place them on a stolen one that is a similar year and model. The person whose car was stolen is obviously victimized by these car cloning theft rings, but the buyers of the cars are also left holding the bag when the authorities find out that they are in possession of a stolen vehicle that they thought they bought fair and square.

A man named Joe Pirrone was the victim of a Tampa based car cloning theft ring that was recently broken up by the FBI. Pirrone took out a loan on a $27,000 pickup truck only to find out that it was stolen and being towed out of his driveway by order of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office while he was enjoying a short vacation in Fort Lauderdale.

“I am making payments on a piece of property that I don’t have. They can’t even repossess it. The bank doesn’t have any help to offer me,” said Pirrone.

The ring had stolen over 1,000 different vehicles that resulted in losses exceeding $24 million. Before the FBI was able to put a stop to it, they had actually been stealing cars and cloning them for around twenty years.

This particular auto theft ring has finally been brought to justice, but the story is very informative. When you realize that there may very well be highly experienced and organized car thieves operating here in Tampa and elsewhere around the country, it underscores the importance of taking preventative measures. You have to make sure that you are protecting your vehicle, but you must also beware when you are buying a car or a truck so that you don’t wind up like Joe Pirrone, who is stuck with a $536 a month payment on a truck he doesn’t have.

Source: CNN

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