Parts linked to stolen vehicles in Black Country discovered at chop shop
A car chop shop full of parts from vehicles stolen from the Black Country has been uncovered by police.
Officers made the discovery after tracing a stolen Range Rover, stolen in Kings Norton, Birmingham, on May 22, to a scrap yard in Cheston Road, Aston, on Wednesday.
They found the car had been partially dismantled and alongside it was an array of vehicle parts including engines, bumpers and other body shells.
Parts were found linked to vehicles taken in Halesowen, Stourbridge and Hampton-in Arden on May 11, May 9 and May 20 respectively – and another taken from Manchester in March.
Many parts were already packaged up for shipment but the force's forensic vehicle examiner will now be going through everything in a bid to link items to other offences.
Officers also found a ‘jammer’ which is a gadget car thieves use to block the frequency from key fobs so vehicles are left insecure when owners believed they are locked.
Superintendent Jim Munro, West Midlands Police's lead for vehicle crime, said: "We run a roads policing operation through the night on the lookout for car thieves. It’s been really successful and last year the operation netted more than 2,000 arrests and recovered 1,000 stolen cars.
"But it’s also important we go after the market for stolen vehicles – and often that’s ‘chop shops’ that quickly dismantle the cars and sell on the parts.
"Often those stolen parts go to repair vehicles bought by criminals from salvage yards, so buyers are unwittingly driving around in cars consisting of stolen parts.
"This is a great find by our officers and initial enquiries suggest this is a sizeable chop shop and may well have been the final destination for many stolen vehicles."
No arrests have been made at this stage but the compound has been sealed off for a thorough search.
