Two arrested in the Portland metro area for Tesla theft ring
by Barry Mangold and KATU staff
Saturday, October 7, 2023
Portland police take Daniel McNett of Vancouver, Washington, into custody on Saturday, September 30, 2023, accusing him of being part of a car theft ring. (Portland Police Department)
PORTLAND, Ore. –
A grand jury on Friday indicted an alleged member of a car theft ring.
According to police and court documents, the suspect, 34-year-old Daniel McNett of Vancouver, Washington, said he has stolen more than 150 cars in the Portland metro area in the past few years alone.
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McNett was arrested by police on Saturday as part of a theft operation.
He was driving a stolen Tesla with the GPS turned off, which Portland officer Michael Terrett said was common in the 10 Tesla thefts that occurred recently at dealerships in Multnomah and Washington counties and in Vancouver.
The thieves used “a pretty sophisticated method,” Terrett said. “Where McNett and other people would disable the GPS devices in the vehicle, making it untraceable.”
Police said they conducted several of these stolen vehicles, finding cars, stolen weapons and other links to organized crime operations. They added that authorities in Multnomah County, Washington County and Vancouver have improved information sharing about stolen vehicles.
“Before, I think it was a matter of us apprehending a person or them being in the stolen vehicle, but now with all of this cooperation and understanding, I think we’re able to come up with a better solution. “We have gotten the large, organized car theft crimes under control. We’re just starting to understand this,” Terrett said.
McNett was arrested along with another suspected member of this car theft ring. This suspect has not yet been formally charged.
Portland police said their work was worth it. Compared to 2022, the number of reports of stolen vehicles has decreased significantly.
From March to August, the number of stolen cars reported to police this year is lower than the same month in 2022, when Portland saw a spike in thefts.
Each month there is a decrease of between 24% and 35% compared to the previous year.
However, the total number of car thefts in Portland so far this year has exceeded the number from years before 2022.
According to PPB data, 5,844 stolen vehicles were reported between January and August this year. That’s a decrease from the 7,404 stolen vehicles reported during the same period in 2022.
However, fewer than 5,100 stolen cars were reported in the first eight months of 2021 and there were 4,037 in this period of 2020.
Multnomah County Assistant District Attorney Cody Linderholm said more organized crime charges could be filed soon.
“I’m from Colorado and Deion Sanders was big on, ‘We keep receipts,’ right? But I think for Multnomah County we’re keeping charges,” Linderholm said. “We come for the people. I think we’re really going to make some noise next year.”
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