June 13, 2000

Summer is here and police call it the busy season for car thieves.

Now a summer blockbuster in movie theaters called "Gone in Sixty Seconds" is glamorizing the life of car thieves, and police fear it may lead to an increase in car thefts.

News Specialist Sam Penrod explains.

Hundreds of cars are stolen every day in the United States, an average of one every 23 seconds. And police say a thief's greatest enemy is time. The harder you make it to steal your car, the less chance you have of becoming a victim.

The new movie "Gone in Sixty Seconds" is number one in theaters after it's release last Friday. It's about so-called professional car thieves who try to steal 50 cars in one night.

And two Utah teenagers are accused of almost doing that in recent days. After one of the 17- year olds was arrested last night, police say he confessed to stealing 11 cars just since Friday.

In this case, all of the cars stolen were taken using a roughly modified key. It's becoming more common on the streets, and is known as a master key.

Todd Gray/West Valley City Police: "THEY WERE ABLE TO ENTER THE VEHICLE BY THE DOOR LOCKS WITH THE KEY AND START THE VEHICLE WITH THAT KEY."

Police say the teens were stealing the stereos and other personal belongings, then leaving the cars behind.

Victims are outraged.

Dorthella Durfey/Angry Victim: "SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD AND OUT STEALING ELEVEN CARS SINCE FRIDAY? THAT'S JUST RIDICULOUS! WHERE ARE THOSE PARENTS?"

Durfey's car was stolen Friday outside a grocery store, after her husband left it running and went inside for five minutes.

Police say they hope this Hollywood portrayal of car thieves will not give other teens ideas of trying to steal and burglarize cars just for fun. It's never as easy as in the movies and much more dangerous.

Todd Gray: "DUE TO THIS MOVIE THE AUTO THEFTS WILL PROBABLY GO UP A LITTLE BIT, BUT WE'RE ALWAYS TRYING TO SURPRESS THAT."

Police say you can't always stop a determined thief, but you can sometimes make it hard enough that he decides it's not worth the trouble.

The easiest way-- Lock your car! Half of all car thefts are from unlocked cars.

And most importantly, never leave your keys in the car, even if you'll only be gone for a minute.

Again, time is what will discourage a thief from trying to steal your car.