RIYADH, 17 October 2005 — Auto thieves love the anonymity of busy streets in a big city, but youthful theft busters are keeping their eyes open, tracking down the hot cars and cashing in at the same time.
The car thieves may not be happy about it, but the victims certainly are.
A young man named Abu Solouh leads a group of Riyadh teenagers who search for stolen cars for only SR1,000 each. The team members, who are all high school students, started off doing it for fun, but success has shown the group it is a good way to make money, too.
Gen. Saud Abed said that two of his relative’s cars were stolen, and he was unable to find them.
“My relative had a 2005 Camry, which was stolen while parked in front of his main door,” said Gen. Abed. “The other car was a 2005 Caprice, which was stolen while my cousin stopped at a pharmacy to buy medicine for his mother.”
Gen. Abed and his relatives used all their contacts to find their cars — but to no avail. “We reported the case to the police and waited for 10 days with no response; they just couldn’t find the cars.”
During the search, one of Gen. Abed’s young relatives told a schoolmate about the car thefts, who in turn recommended they seek out Abu Solouh.
During a phone call, Abu Solouh said he charged SR1,000 to find stolen cars.
“I told him that I’d give him SR2,000 if he brought our cars back,” said Gen. Abed. “Within two days Abu Solouh found our cars and called telling us where they were.”
The group doesn’t tangle with car thieves or try to retrieve the stolen vehicles. All they do is search for the car and call the owner as soon as they spot it.
A study published by Al-Riyadh newspaper said that most of the car thefts were the work of students and jobless teenagers.
“It is impossible to leave the engine running and step out of your car even for a few minutes,” said Gen. Abed.
The driver of businessman Saad Al-Owaini found out the hard way.
“My driver went inside the house to get his bag, when he came out, the car was gone,” Al-Owaini said, noting the car is still missing.
Still, there are better chances of getting your car back in the Kingdom than there is elsewhere.
“Ninety percent of the stolen cars in the Kingdom are found and returned to their owners by the police,” said one police official, suggesting that car thievery is under control.
In France, only 70 percent of the stolen cars are returned. In Germany, 60 percent of the stolen cars are retrieved, but only 40 percent are seen again in Italy.
The police official said car owners are responsible for the safety of their vehicles. “You should never leave a car while the engine is running,” he said.
Meanwhile, Abu Solouh and his team of theftbusters are on the prowl. They are neither formal or official detectives, but they keep their eyes open. In fact they do the job in their spare time. But until police get the auto-theft problem under control, it is likely these theftbusters will continue to cash in — and keep snagging criminals.
