Hidden under tarps in the middle of a homeless encampment in downtown LA, a stolen Maserati was found -- a rare find even for officers who've seen it all.
"We have officers and supervisors that have been here for 20 years and they’ve never seen that. A stolen car being stripped in a homeless encampment; that’s really thinking outside the box, so to speak, for the criminals," said Capt. Raul Jovel, Commanding Officer for the LAPD Central.
The luxury vehicle was reportedly stolen on Dec. 11 from a parking lot near the Crypto.com Arena while the driver was at a nearby event. They believe it was taken to the encampment to be stripped for parts.
The commanding officer said the vehicle was found with the wheels missing and a lot of the interior components gone.
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LAPD said at the start of the year, they saw a dramatic spike in auto theft and burglary. In response, they created a task force to catch the criminals responsible.
Jovel said it’s rare to find a luxury car in the middle of a homeless encampment, but not uncommon to see criminal activities.
"Prostitution, lewd activity, human trafficking, which is really concerning, but also the property-related stuff: car stripping, receiving stolen property, the narcotics use, and selling from tents, huge problem here in downtown," said Jovel.
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Jovel also mentioned that it's not necessarily the unhoused people living at the encampments committing the crimes, which is a huge concern for officers.
"When you see a large encampment there’s a lot of people looking at how can we make this into a money-making enterprise and that’s where the narcotics, the stolen cars, stolen parts come into play," said Jovel
