Law officers from 13 Midwestern states and two Canadian provinces are wrapping up a three-day conference on auto theft today in Des Moines. The annual conference is sponsored by the International Association of Auto Theft investigators. Wisconsin Senior State Trooper Larry Bruzynski is a vice president of the organization. Bruzynski says they share information on preventing the theft of just about anything on wheels, including cars, recreational vehicles, construction equipment and farm machinery. Iowa doesn’t have the car theft problem of major cities, but Bruzynski says theft trends in those big cities eventually make their way to the Midwest. He says one of the most popular training sessions is this morning with a retired Mississippi State Trooper named Virgel Luke. Bruzynski says Luke can identify a stolen car even when the serial numbers have been filed off. He says Luke can look at a piece of metal, narrow down a time frame in which the vehicle was made, and using indicators of the model can come up with a list of suspects. Bruzynski says even with all this training, the best way to prevent car theft is to encourage people to lock them up. The most important thing for people to do to prevent their car form being stolen, is to lock their car and take the key. The conference began Tuesday and ends today at the Airport Holiday Inn in Des Moines.
