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Stolen Honda vehicles, parts found inside Fairhill garage
Philadelphia Police say they recovered at least six stolen vehicles and numerous car parts inside a garage near 9th Street and Ontario Street. It was one of three search warrants investigators with the Major Crimes Unit executed on Tuesday in an on-going investigation of stolen Honda vehicles in the city.
PHILADELPHIA - FOX 29 got an inside look inside a chop shop bust in Fairhill.
What they're saying:
Philadelphia Police say they recovered at least six stolen vehicles and numerous car parts inside a garage near 9th Street and Ontario Street.
It was one of three search warrants investigators with the Major Crimes Unit executed on Tuesday in an ongoing investigation of stolen Honda vehicles in the city.
"This is probably the largest chop shop that I’ve seen, most would be a small garage, maybe enough to fit one or two cars, this is a wide open space," said Captain Robert McKeever, Commanding Officer of the Major Crimes Unit.
Investigators tell FOX 29 they also searched a private home and storage facility in the Northeast were they recovered numerous car parts, tires and doors.
Philadelphia Police say they have two men in custody and anticipate more arrests.
They say they believe the group was stealing Hondas and stripping the parts for resale or to ship to the Dominican Republic.
In some cases, police say they were using the parts to weld onto vehicles purchased from Facebook Marketplace or a salvage yard and resell them.
Fortunately, they were able to get to at least six vehicles in the garage before they were broken down further, police say.
"A lot of times they’ll take some of the federal stickers off, the identifiable marks and things like that, but us executing the search warrant at the perfect time, we have these cars with their identifiable VIN numbers," says Captain McKeever.
Police say they believe the thieves are using Autel machines to steal the vehicles, which can reprogram key fobs in under two minutes, then using specific tools to break the vehicles down.
Across the city, the Major Crimes Units say stolen cars are down about 1,300 compared to this time last year.
"People work hard for everything they have, you know, and the second biggest purchase they make is a car, so we’re doing everything we can," says Captain McKeever.
The Source: Information in this story is from Philadelphia police.