Jul
31
After an Albuquerque mother found her own stolen car, she said she was surprised with the way Albuquerque police handled the situation.
Elena Galicia went shopping at the Walgreens on San Pedro and Menaul Boulevard on Friday, and her Honda Accord was not there when she came out.
“I was devastated,” said Galicia, a single mom of three.
When the car didn’t turn up after three days, she took matters into her own hands; searching for the car in northeast Albuquerque. She found it in a lot in an apartment complex.
She still had her keys, and immediately jumped in and drove off, calling police.
“They came — pretty fast — but they were like, ‘Good, you found your car, good job.’ They didn’t seem to look further,” Galicia said.
The officers did not search the car, and they ended up missing dozens of papers, including the registration documents for more Honda Accords, all left in the backseat.
“These people are career criminals, getting away with this. They need to be caught,” Galicia said.
Albuquerque police explained in a statement why they chose not to search the car: “This is just abandoned property, we can’t do anything with. We cannot take fingerprints off paper.
“Even if we ran the VIN numbers on the other vehicles, that may have been reported stolen, we have no suspect in custody to tie those vehicles to,” said APD spokesperson Officer Tanner Tixier.
Elena has a lot of questions, such as what if all the cars were stolen on the same day or in the same area? What if the thief is a repeat offender?
“This is happening to so many people, hardworking people, that work hard, and people just go around taking what doesn’t belong to them,” said Galicia.
Galicia can’t understand why APD wouldn’t at least try to see what all this could mean.
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