At least four people are in custody today and face charges of auto theft after allegedly stealing vehicles over the past several days, Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong reports.
The four subjects, believed to be men and possibly a juvenile, are believed to be involved in the theft of two cars this morning alone in which a vehicle was reported stolen, was recovered and then stolen again, Furlong said. More arrests were in the making late this morning at an apartment at 2808 Menlo Drive.
"This thing has mushroomed. We think there's more to this than stolen vehicles," Furlong said.
Officers arrested two males at two locations at around 11 a.m. after a vehicle crashed near Airport Road and Douglas, the sheriff reports. One man was chased and captured by deputies while another man ran to an apartment building on Menlo in which he was later captured. A stolen vehicle crashed into an unoccupied vehicle.
In the past two weeks, there's been about a dozen auto thefts in which vehicles were stolen in the morning hours as owners turned on their cars to warm them up, Furlong said.
"We want to crackdown on this and ask people not to start up their cars to warm them up and leave them unattended," said Furlong. "We're looking about about a dozen of these stolen car cases over the last several days."