Deputy Harrell honored for auto theft recoveries

San Diego County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Harrell from the Fallbrook substation was one of 12 deputies honored March 14 for their work in recovering stolen vehicles in San Diego County last year.

The deputies were recognized at a special awards breakfast held at The Prado at Balboa Park. Combined, the deputies arrested 62 people and recovered 215 stolen cars worth more than $2 million in 2017.

Harrell, 29, has been with the Sheriff's Department for nearly six years and has worked out of Fallbrook for nearly four years. Harrell said he and his colleagues are passionate about finding stolen vehicles.

"Everybody at the station works hard," said Harrell. "While driving around we're always looking for stolen vehicles and trying to recover stolen vehicles to get them back to their owners. It's something we like to do."

Harrell, who noted that Deputy Terence York and Deputy Steven Fealy also did well in 2017 recovering stolen vehicles, said car thieves like to use remote areas of Fallbrook as drop off locations.

"We drive into the more obscure areas of Fallbrook where criminals that steal vehicles are most likely to dump them," said Harrell. "We're looking for vehicles that are off the side of the roadway and in a spot that people don't normally park. When we see those kind of vehicles we check to see if the steering column has been tampered with or if the ignition has been tampered with. We make sure we run the plate as well as the vehicle identification number to make sure they are in sync with each other."

Harrell said deputies will also validate that the driver of a vehicle should in fact be driving that vehicle.

"Sometimes when we pull people over they're driving a vehicle that doesn't belong to them, so we'll have one of our partners or another agency attempt to contact the registered owner of the vehicle just to double-check and make sure that vehicle is in the right hands," said Harrell.

Though movies will sometime show people stealing a car just for a "joy ride," usually the car is being stolen for a specific purpose.

"Some people will steal vehicles with the intention of going out to commit a crime with that vehicle, either to commit a burglary or, if they're a gang member, they might even be driving to a different city to fight with a rival gang," said Harrell. "They don't like to do it in their own vehicles because they know we can track those back to their residences a lot more easily."

Harrell said it's a very good bet that the person driving a stolen vehicle has a history of criminal behavior.

"Almost every person that I've arrested for auto theft has either had a warrant out of our agency, a different agency, or had drugs or stolen property, or the trifecta and had all three of those at the same time," said Harrell. "It's very common."

When shopping for cars, thieves like one type above all others – a vehicle that's simple to steal.

"The most common vehicle that is stolen is probably an early 1990s Honda Civic," said Harrell. "That is the most common vehicle we see stolen. It is the easiest vehicle to steal."

Harrell suggests people who have a vehicle that is popular with thieves invest in a protection device like a steering wheel lock, such as The Club.

Harrell said the LoJack system, in which radio frequency tracks a vehicle, greatly helps law enforcement recover a vehicle.

"LoJack is huge for us," said Harrell. "Most of our cars are outfitted with a LoJack locator, plus the Sheriff's helicopter has Lojack, so if anybody is within range of our vehicles or the helicopter, we can get a pretty good lockdown on where the car is going."

Harrell cited an example where LoJack helped him and his colleagues get a bad guy who robbed a pastor in Bonsall.

"He lived at the church, in a parsonage in the back and some random guy from Riverside County burglarized his home, broke in, and stole his keys and took off in his car," said Harrell. "We got there within a couple of minutes of the guy leaving. We had the pastor activate his LoJack and we picked up the suspect within 20, 30 minutes. He was on some random property off of Ranger Road, had a couple of grams of meth (methamphetamine) in his pocket, and was just high as a kite. We arrested him right there."

Harrell offered one piece of advice for everyone – regardless of the car they drive – that would seem obvious.

"Never leave your car running because so often, in the early morning, people will start up their car to get it warm, go back inside to grab their coffee, and they come out to get their car and it's gone," said Harrell.

Harrell and the 11 other deputies who led their respective stations in vehicle recoveries were presented with awards by the Auto Theft Advisory Committee, a partnership between law enforcement, insurance and car-related companies working to reduce car theft.

"Deputy Robert Harrell has a strong work ethic and believes in keeping the communities he serves safe from criminal activity by locating and placing criminals in jail," said Lt. Mark Moreno of the Fallbrook substation. "In earning the auto theft recovery award he is being honored for, Deputy Harrell located several criminals in stolen vehicles. I applaud Deputy Harrell for his award, it is well-deserved."