Video of Mary Cheh's car being stolen from outside of Bread Furst

[Anonymous]

WAIT, were the rush hour rules in effect? If so the thief is a hero.

She’ll probably get it back though I bet it’s just a joy ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, no anger towards the car thieves brazenly boosting a car at noon on one of our city's busiest streets. Oh, OK.

No one's saying that's, but she made a very stupid decision--and apparently illegally parked. At some point you have to take responsibility for the consequences of your own idiotic choices. That goes for both Cheh, and the thieves.

The Council is, for reasons unknown, allowed to park anywhere, legally or illegally. So she didn’t technically do anything wrong leaving her car there. Leaving it running and unlocked, however, is... not the best decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, no anger towards the car thieves brazenly boosting a car at noon on one of our city's busiest streets. Oh, OK.

I'm saving my outrage for armed carjackings and pedestrians who are robbed at gunpoint. A councilperson who left their car running in a no parking zone on a street in the city? Nah, that's just dumb.

This. We do live in a city. How dumb can you be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WAIT, were the rush hour rules in effect? If so the thief is a hero.

She’ll probably get it back though I bet it’s just a joy ride.

Yes I think he was just thoughtfully moving her car out of the way so others wouldn't have to avoid hitting it or going around it in heavy traffic. He took time out of his day to clear the road. How nice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, no anger towards the car thieves brazenly boosting a car at noon on one of our city's busiest streets. Oh, OK.

No one's saying that's, but she made a very stupid decision--and apparently illegally parked. At some point you have to take responsibility for the consequences of your own idiotic choices. That goes for both Cheh, and the thieves.

I'm not mad at the thieves. They broke the law, and if the police ever bother to catch them (I would not count on them making any great effort, and even if they do, I would not bet money on them being any good at it--for all we valorize police officers, they turn out not to be great at actually solving crimes), I expect them to be prosecuted and, if convicted, punished appropriately.

I mean, I'm not mad at Cheh, either. I just think it's funny -- she left her car running in a no-parking zone because, like many people, she thinks she is just too busy and important and special to follow the law. And then someone else broke the law and took her car. Karma is a bitch.

i take all the "naughty Cheh for leaving your car running" posts with a grain of salt. Let people have their moment of humor. But it is discouraging to see zero rxn to the crime itself. Car theft + crimes in the District has been skyrocketing, and it's not always the Chehs of the world. It's you, me, the delivery person, the cleaner who gets his or her window smashed. I am not going to split hairs about being 'mad' at criminals. The fact is they DO cause large-scale property loss, inconvenience, insurance rates city-wide to go up and occasionally innocent bystanders to get injured or killed as they joyride. This is criminal behavior and I hope Cheh being the victim calls attention to it AND to the low resolve in our city to solve and prosecute.

It's not just our city. Police are not very good at solving crimes. Anywhere.

And my outrage is broken these days. I just don't have the bandwidth to be outraged at everything that's outrageous in the world right now.

car crimes in our city are out of hand. they are such a bummer when it happens to you. Since your bandwidth is already broken, I truly hope it doesn't

[Anonymous]

Lots of criticism of your own little Marie Antoinette here...so I suppose none of you are actually responsible for putting this piece of work in office, huh?

[Anonymous]

From the looks of it, the two gentlemen entrepreneurs who are borrowing Mrs. Cheh's car are not worried in the slightest about any potential DC auto theft laws. But why should they. This city council has said repeatedly that auto theft is a property crime.

I have to pay for a subscription dashcam service now after my car was stolen. The city is fine with my spending that extra $15 a month on top of my already high compared to anywhere car insurance. Those are consumer costs and not city budget costs...so ok.

[Anonymous]

Not to split hairs, but this was not a “crime of opportunity” in the traditional sense. That term is for your porch Pirates, unattended purse snatchers, and bike thieves. These two guys committed a felony in broad daylight on a crowded commercial corridor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to split hairs, but this was not a “crime of opportunity” in the traditional sense. That term is for your porch Pirates, unattended purse snatchers, and bike thieves. These two guys committed a felony in broad daylight on a crowded commercial corridor.

This was a rehearsed car theft. Not the first time. Will not be the last. Next time there may be a car seat in the back or they may hit a nice old lady in the crosswalk departing the scene.

Anybody who calls this a crime of opportunity does not know how a crime that looks like this works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to split hairs, but this was not a “crime of opportunity” in the traditional sense. That term is for your porch Pirates, unattended purse snatchers, and bike thieves. These two guys committed a felony in broad daylight on a crowded commercial corridor.

This was a rehearsed car theft. Not the first time. Will not be the last. Next time there may be a car seat in the back or they may hit a nice old lady in the crosswalk departing the scene.

Anybody who calls this a crime of opportunity does not know how a crime that looks like this works.

The people who think this is no big deal think the same of looting and window smashing. "Someone else will pay"

[Anonymous]

I was at a MPD neighborhood meeting after a murder a couple of blocks away from this auto theft. Mary Cheh was in attendance and relayed to the attendees that she had recently had a contractor have his tools stolen from his unlocked vehicle parked in her driveway.

Councilmembers are aware that crime is an issue in this city, they have simply chosen to shift the burden to private insurance companies as that does not cost the city money.

At the end of the day, with the contractors tools, either his insurance company or Mary's homeowners insurance were paying. Not a city salary towards a police officer or an investigation by a non existent auto crimes squad. In this case, Mary will have a new Mini by Christmas. She is fortunate, the deductible will not be felt, her life not really adversely impacted and she will move on. This is how she would like us all to handle similar cases.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that is not even a circle back job. Those thieves are looking for cars and know that if she had walked out they could claim to simply be turning her car off. Probably even hold the door open for her. But if they got caught, they know that ultimately nothing will happen.

At least we know that they are above high school age otherwise they would have been busy DL'ing.

The council would say that their male brains are still mush and they cannot be held accountable.

Oh and +1 on the Merc being hot as well.

[Anonymous]

OK, this is what I don't get. Why are car thefts up in the city. In this day and age, how long can you possibly drive a stolen car before you're pulled over and arrested. You can't get it registered, insured or anything. You can put fake tags on it I guess for a while, but for how long. The police can run tags on your car without pulling you over or even slowing down. What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

Cheh's actions reek of entitlement.

Don't worry though. She has a job as a council member and she works as a professor of law at GWU for $200K/yr. She'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, this is what I don't get. Why are car thefts up in the city. In this day and age, how long can you possibly drive a stolen car before you're pulled over and arrested. You can't get it registered, insured or anything. You can put fake tags on it I guess for a while, but for how long. The police can run tags on your car without pulling you over or even slowing down. What am I missing?

The city's LPR's (License Plate Readers) that are mounted on streetlights etc, have ZERO ability to compare license plate data with the car that is photographed. So in other words if you are driving a stolen Mini with otherwise valid plates from another car, the LPR's do not care. They also don't care about removed license plates. They will not send an alert about a vehicle that appears to be missing plates.

The LPR's that are mounted on squad cars operate slightly differently. They provide the Officer the status of the license plate and in another text field the vehicle that the plate is registered to. But it will not alert to anything besides a stolen plate that the system sees. So in that case it is up to the officer to see that the plates on the stolen vehicle are actually registered to a Toyota Corolla.

Typically the thieves drive away, pull the plates off and the car will go undetected until it accumulates enough parking tickets somewhere to warrant a tow. At that point the tow company will take it to the city impound lot or a contracted lot and run the VIN. The VIN will be flagged as stolen and the police will be notified.

Bottom line, the LPR's do not compare license plates to VIN's.

Oh and even if the policeman behind you notices that you are in a stolen car, he cannot pursue you once you decide to run the red light.