The stench of cigarette smoke blasted Cindi Morrison as she opened the door of her stolen GMC Suburban.
Inside were sleeping bags, five license plates – none hers – snapshots of people she didn’t know, Jane’s Addiction CDs and McDonald’s trash.
Tucked away were two rings of strange keys, someone else’s debit card and a collapsible steel baton.
But the wine-colored 1997 Suburban still runs and was not damaged, except the back seat was gone.
“I’m really happy to have it back,” the south Everett resident said.
Morrison’s Suburban vanished from Bellevue and was found stashed behind a 7-Eleven on Capitol Hill late last week, just one of a string of 10 stolen vehicles recovered by State Patrol detectives.
Detectives arrested four Seattle men during the investigation, one of whom pointed the way to the Suburban.
The odds were good from the start that Morrison would get her vehicle back.
Nationwide, the average rate of recovery for stolen cars is 65 percent, but in Washington it’s around 85 percent, State Patrol Sgt. Detective John Anderson said. Whether Morrison’s Suburban would be chopped up and sold for parts or crashed in a ditch before it was recovered was the big question.
The four arrested were methamphetamine users, Anderson said, and they were caught with drugs. Two were 30 years old, one was 29 and one was in his mid-20s.
The value of cars recovered last week totaled more than $110,000 and included SUVs such as Morrison’s and smaller Hondas and sedans.
“This was a significant operation,” Anderson said. “Those vehicles go back to insurance companies or owners.”
Missing from the statistics about returned vehicles is the “hassle factor,” Morrison said.
“It starts to consume your life,” she said. “It’s very frustrating. I don’t know why people think they can just walk up and take a $40,000 vehicle because they want it. They never thought about the inconvenience.”
Her Suburban went missing Oct. 23 and was found Oct. 29, a long six days filled with phone calls and fretting. She didn’t have car rental insurance and faced fees of $49 a day to rent an SUV big enough to drive around her children.
Morrison said she was lucky to borrow her mother’s truck, saving her hundreds of dollars.
But a house key hidden in the Suburban and receipts with her home address worried her enough to spend $190 to change her home’s locks. She also plans to change the lock on her mailbox and is checking her credit cards daily for fear they may be used by thieves.
The crimes of car theft and identity theft are interrelated, Anderson said, and car thefts continue to be a problem statewide. Last year, more than 40,000 cars were stolen in Washington, about 70 percent from King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, Anderson said.
Stealing a car can be easy. Detectives said car thieves often use keys ground down enough to be used to open and start many different cars of the same make. Saturns, Hondas, Acuras, Chevrolets and some Fords are susceptible, Anderson said.
The State Patrol’s case broke Thursday when a stolen Nissan broke down on I-5 in Federal Way and a State Patrol trooper arrested the driver. That arrest and investigation led to stakeouts of three other men who also were caught driving stolen cars.
Sometimes big, comfortable SUVs like Morrison’s are used for sleeping, Anderson said.
Morrison’s Suburban was parked at the South Bellevue Park and Ride while her 16-year-old son car pooled with his date to a dance in Seattle. He was driven back to the park and ride at 12:30 a.m., and when he couldn’t find the vehicle, he called his mother.
“Thank God it was the car and not the kid,” Morrison said.
Jeff Switzer is a reporter for the King County Journal in Bellevue.
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