- Just north of the Hollywood Hills and south
of the San Gabriel Mountains sits the San Fernando Valley
of California, home to Circus Liquors made famous
by Clueless, multiple movie studios, scenic views
and one of the biggest car heists in recent memory.
The California Highway Patrol's Southern Division
Special Services Vehicle Theft Unit, it's a mouthful,
AKA the CHP Southern Division SSC, still kind of long,
issued a warrant for an arrest
following a two month long investigation.
What they found was truly shocking.
35 stolen cars in someone's backyard in Van Nuys.
So how did one guy allegedly steal all these cars and why?
Today on WheelHouse, we're getting
to the bottom of this baffling auto theft case.
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Now back to the show. Got to go find that wallet.
(chiming music)
It was nearly 80 degrees
in the valley on Thursday, March 24th.
It was a perfect day for basking
in the sun and relaxing with a refreshing beverage.
It was also the day law enforcement arrested 39-year-old
Vage Chavushyan for suspicion of possessing a firearm.
He might have gone down for a gun,
but what he's suspected of is far more expensive.
This north Hollywood native was also in possession
of an indoor operation of more than 400 marijuana plants.
And as I mentioned earlier, the reason we're all here:
he had 35 stolen cars, all parked in his backyard.
Check out the aerial view of this crime scene.
These cars were parked pretty well,
not a lot of space to waste.
So what kind of rides were stolen?
Well, these weren't your average Uber cars, all right?
These are the kind of rides pulling up
when you splurge on that UberX
after a long night of partying at the Victorian.
The backyard haul is quite the assortment of pricey whips.
You got classic beauties,
such as the Bentley Continental GT,
an Aston Martin vantage and a CH Chevy Corvette Stingray.
A full detailed list of all the contraband
has not been released yet,
but the photos on the CHP's Facebook page introduced us
to a few of the cars at the party.
There's also a BMW X6 M, a few Mercedes SUVs
and various other German coops and sedans.
Vage had champagne taste.
According to an on-call desk officer
at the Van Nuys Police Department,
most of these other thieves are ballin' on a beer budget.
The majority of other cars stolen
in the same area as Vage's 35 car bust are Hondas, Hyundais,
and older Toyota models.
A few news reports on this story
state that some of the vehicles from the backyard
were involved in other crimes in the area.
It's crazy to think this guy's nearly 2.3 million worth
of stolen cars on his property
and thinks it's a good idea to go out and commit more crimes
while driving said stolen automobiles.
It's actually pretty suspicious.
It's almost too easy.
Something else has to be going on, right?
Another fact that is super weird to me
about this case is that Vage was not even charged
with car theft at the time,
but with possession of a firearm.
the officer we spoke with defeatedly confided in us
that theft, even at this level, is considered a minor crime.
He was surprised that the media was even covering it.
I mean, think about it. That makes sense.
Like if one car gets stolen, that's not really a news story.
So it's gotta be a lota cars to get stolen
for it to be noteworthy.
So how and why does a person get away
with a crime like this for so long?
According to the photos and police reports from
the day of the bust, a lot of the cars had been
there a long time, with grass grown up around them.
Some cars even had signs of wear and tear.
And I know what you're thinking.
Why would someone steal that many cars and then just leave
them to essentially rot in the backyard of all places?
Great question.
But the clear answer here, according to my new buddy
working the desk shift at the Van Nuys PD,
is that this isn't a straight cut case of theft.
This is a major fraud case.
Stealing this many cars the old fashioned way
would actually be pretty hard to pull off.
Imagine the luck and logistics necessary to pilfer
this many high profile rides by yourself
without getting caught.
It's just not feasible.
Law enforcement believes that an operation
on this level can only be carried
out via fraudulent purchases and a lot of them.
Let's examine how something like this even gets carried out.
By more stealing, of course.
Now this is a little bit of speculation, but stay with me.
I was told organized theft of this volume requires the thief
or thieves involved to undertake multiple stolen identities
and commit fraud on multiple credit card accounts.
Basically, the suspect most likely got his hands
on someone's credit card information that was not his.
Then he also steals their identity
or knows someone who makes very convincing fake documents.
Hell, he seems to be quite the entrepreneur.
He might be making fake IDs himself.
If he was stealing the IDs
this person's gotta sorta look like him too.
Look, we were all underage once. You know the deal.
Not me though. I wasn't cool in high school.
Then he sets up a high-caliber car rental
situation through a dealership.
He springs for the luxury car and then goes to
lease or buy this car under his new stolen name
and then he never brings it back.
Or he goes to a dealership and test drives a car
under a different fake identity, and then never comes back.
In either of these cases,
he takes the stolen vehicle back to his backyard
luxury car parking lot and parks it.
Then he can't be tracked because the person who
stole the car wasn't even him.
Then he does that over and over again,
at least 35 times that we know of.
As you might imagine, crimes like these are pretty uncommon.
It's a more sophisticated crime.
According to the officer we talked to,
most car thefts are one-offs.
And according to an article released
by Crosstown in January of 2022, in 2021
there were a total of 24,224 vehicle thefts in Los Angeles.
This is the most thefts in a single year since 2010,
a 13.7% increase since 2020 and a shocking 54.1% rise
of the number of vehicles reported stolen in 2019.
This report also cites Van Nuys
as one of the hot spots for auto theft, so
I guess park in Northridge and then Uber over.
According to the one officer we could get on the phone,
usually someone steals a car they see on the street.
They decide they need it for monetary purposes, like parts,
or maybe they just wanna take it for a joy ride.
They can do this by punching
out the ignition or using a shaved key.
Typically car thieves will drive the car around
for a day or two and then cold plate it.
Cold plating means using stolen plates
of the same make and model as the stolen vehicle.
Cold plates shield the car from automated plate readers
on police cars and other government vehicles
that can alert an officer
that a vehicle has been reported stolen.
A lot of times after this the thieves will park
the stolen car in a nearby alley or street.
And shockingly, a lot of people
that have had their car stolen say
that they find it like a mile away.
And as I previously mentioned, stealing a car
and selling the parts is also
a popular tactic for many thieves.
The Van Nuys officer said
that new cars are actually even easier to steal
because of their keyless entry systems.
A lot of people just leave their keys in their cars.
And Vage might have used this tactic a few times,
but rather than abandoning his loot nearby
he took it back to his backyard empire.
The officer said he's never seen this kind
of mass theft in his 20 years on the job.
He truly believes that the suspect
didn't act alone in this case.
Maybe it's more of a mass crime operation,
with possibly a few people involved.
Remember earlier I mentioned that some
of the cars were involved in other crimes?
There's gotta be something there.
He somehow also found time to tend 400 pot plants,
which seems like tedious work to do on the side by yourself.
I can barely keep my bamboo plant alive.
I keep thinking about this part in "Catch Me If You Can",
a movie that came out in like 2002,
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
Leo plays a con artist that travels around the world
and makes his way of life relying on his
skills to perform flawless frauds.
I like to picture of the day
the CHP rolled up on Vage and had a similar tone,
except the CHP was definitely chasing Vage.
But for now, according to an article in the LA Times,
he's arrested on suspicion of being a felon
in possession of a firearm
and California law dictates that that's a maximum sentence
of three years in county jail, or he could get fined
up to $10,000 or he could get
both a jail sentence and a fine.
If he's also convicted of stealing all 35 cars
and being charged with fraud he could face
a two to five year jail sentence with a fine
of up to $50,000 and possibly probation, allegedly.
So what now? Well, things are still mostly up in the air.
This is an ongoing investigation
and clearly large parts of the why and the how
of this happened are TBD.
The Van Nuys officer offered up a few key pieces
of advice for keeping your precious rides safe
from the hands of thieves.
Be less of a target. Don't have a damaged ignition switch.
Make sure your ignition switch is in good shape.
Get a club for the steering wheel,
especially if you have Honda.
And for God's sakes, don't leave your keys
or the key fob in the car.
This seems very obvious, but it's one of the leading ways
thieves are able to steal cars so easily.
We also have an entire episode of WheelHouse
all about preventing theft and I'll link that down below
if you wanna know more.
This is still an ongoing investigation,
so there are still lots of unanswered questions.
I mean, I have tons.
Maybe the backyard was some sort of stable,
where a crime ring parked their cars.
Or maybe this guy just really, really liked
cars and made some dumb decisions to get them.
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(paper crinkling) (relaxing music)
- That's it for WheelHouse this week.
Like we said, this case is still ongoing.
A lot of details haven't been released yet.
Freaking wild. Van Nuys, who would've thought, huh?
Be kind. Don't leave your keys in the car.
I'll see you next time.
(soft music)