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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesHonda CR-Vs Becoming Popular With Local Car Thieves

Honda CR-Vs Becoming Popular With Local Car Thieves

Honda CR-Vs appear to be popular with St. John car thieves who, according to anecdotal reports, want the engines to soup up cars.

Deputy Police Chief Darren Foy, reached on vacation via his cell phone, said he has no “direct knowledge” of Honda CR-V engines being stolen for their engines, but he knows that the Honda CR-V engines fit into the smaller Honda Civics.

“A lot of individuals like them because they’re sporty,” he said of the smaller cars.

St. John resident Mark Horgan had a Honda CR-V stolen from his Coral Bay area driveway Sept. 30. It belonged to the house that he manages, and he frequently uses it. The car was found in the Coral Bay area neighborhood of Flanagan’s Passage.

“Everything under the hood was gone and the front axle too,” he said.

Horgan said the car is probably a total loss since replacing the missing parts would be cost prohibitive.

The car wasn’t locked but it was closed, and he said the thieves hot-wired the car to get it started. He didn’t hear a thing since it happened during the overnight hours.

He said he thinks someone must be operating a shop that deals with stripping stolen cars.

Roger Brooker, who used to park his Honda CR-V near the Coral Bay dinghy dock because he lives on a boat, discovered last week that would-be thieves had tried unsuccessfully to break into his car.

“We took the car and hid it at a friend’s house,” he said.

That’s proved to be very inconvenient, but he doesn’t want his car to meet the same fate as the Honda CR-V that was stolen from Horgan’s driveway.

“It’s not a good feeling to know you bought a car for $13,000 and one morning it’s going to be gone,” Brooker said.

Brooker said he knows of at least two other people who had their Honda CR-Vs stolen from the Coral Bay area in recent years.

Richard Traina is one of them. He said he used to have a Honda CR-V, but thieves stole it right from his yard about four years ago. He said the thieves smashed the window and hot-wired the ignition to make off with the car.

He found the car near Lameshur Bay with the four expensive Pirelli tires still on the wheels.

“Only the engine was gone,” he said, adding that he learned at that time how popular those engines are with car thieves.

He said he now parks his Honda Element behind gates to ward off car thieves.

Horgan had advice for Honda CR-V owners.

“People that own Hondas ought to be extra careful,” he said.

Coral Bay area resident and Crime Stoppers representative Bonny Corbeil pointed out that people are discovering via the internet many ways to engage in illegal activities. Therefore, she said it’s particularly important that residents remain vigilant and call the police Crime Stoppers when they have information about crimes like car thefts.

Call the police at 911 and Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

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