Baltimore’s CBP Field Office says it ranked second in the country with 250 stolen vehicle recoveries in fiscal year 2024.
WASHINGTON — In January, thieves made off with two Jeep Wranglers parked on a Southeast DC street in a matter of seconds.
The overnight thefts on South Carolina Avenue, Southeast, were caught on camera. Video shows the thieves breaking in and stealing one of the Jeeps. Then they return about a half hour later and steal another Jeep parked across the street.
One of those stolen Jeeps belonged to Nick Cioffi, who says he got a call from MPD a few weeks ago with some answers.
“Customs agents had found the car, and they found our neighbor’s Jeep also, and a Corvette of all things inside a shipping container in the port of Baltimore that was headed to West Africa,” said Cioffi. Something officials say happens often.
Its latest data, from fiscal year 2024, shows the Baltimore Field Office ranked second in the country with 250 stolen vehicle recoveries. The most common vehicle model recovered in fiscal year 2024, were Toyota Highlanders, followed by Jeeps.
Customs and Border Protection in Baltimore says, West Africa is a leading destination for stolen cars because of vessel traffic to West African ports, and transnational criminal organizations that trade in stolen vehicles have well-established supply chains in the area.
Cioffi got his Jeep back, but too late.
“Our insurance already totaled it out and paid us off on it, so I guess the car belongs to the insurance company now, but Border Patrol or customs agents, rather said that it was going to be in evidence for a couple more months,” he said.
Customs says many car thefts by these criminal groups happen at dealerships or rental companies. By the time it takes dealerships to identify the fraud or for rental companies to learn that their vehicle is stolen, the thieves have packed the vehicles into shipping containers and onto a cargo ship.
When customs check vehicle identification numbers on export vehicles to determine if the export is legitimate, that vehicle may not have been reported stolen yet.
In this case, Cioffi’s car was stopped before it hit the water, but arrests have not been announced. Cioffi says he’s already invested in kill switches and installed them in both his cars, as well as steering wheel locks to help prevent something like this from happening again.
