Cars are vanishing from driveways. Mystery tow truck thefts leave SoCal drivers angry, uneasy

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At 6 a.m.in early December, an unlabeled white tow truck cruised into Jesse Roller’s Chino neighborhood.

Roller had saved up for four years to buy his prized Cadillac CTS-V coupe, and in 30 seconds, it was gone.The tow truck driver stopped in front of the car, latched on using a self-loading lift and drove away without ever leaving the truck.The theft of Roller’s car is part of a pattern in which vehicles have been snatched from driveways and neighborhood curbs across San Bernardino County, stretching back for nearly a year.“I spent three hours calling the surrounding police stations ...

saying, ‘Hey, did you guys tow this vehicle?’ and they all said ‘No,’” Roller said.“That’s how I knew it wasn’t a mistaken [repossession].

My car was just gone.”In Southern California, repossession of a car whose owner is behind on loan payments is not uncommon.But companies are legally required to report the tow to police.

Victims with whom The Times spoke said that their cars were not behind on payments, and that local police initially had no knowledge of their cars’ whereabouts.San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials told The Times in a statement that they were aware of thefts using a white tow truck in their jurisdiction and confirmed reports of the crime in neighboring counties.The department also said it had elevated the case to a specialized division that was conducting an investigation.

“At first I thought it was just me, but then I went online and saw that it’s happening to so many people,” Roller said.“My friend told me that he saw the same white tow truck driving around his neighborhood in Chino, too.

This thief is just out there.”On Facebook, residents from Rancho Cucamonga to Victorville have shared video of of luxury cars and Toyota and Chevrolet trucks being towed from in front of their homes in incidents that date back to at least March...