Elderly couple arrested for running chop shop in Wickenburg, police say

WICKENBURG, Ariz. – Stolen cars are turning up across Arizona, spanning locations from Wickenburg to Tombstone.

Wickenburg:

An elderly couple was arrested after the Wickenburg Police Department executed a search warrant and uncovered an alleged chop shop on Painted Wagon Trail in Whispering Ranch. 

Police located a car hidden underground, three non-drivable vehicles, and a large quantity of vehicle parts, noting that such activity is unusual for the area.
A photograph provided by authorities shows the vehicle buried in the dirt.

The discovery was the result of a month-long investigation that began with a traffic stop involving a stolen vehicle. The probe expanded after officers received a tip from an anonymous source. 

“It kind of turned into a bigger investigation using a confidential informant,” Wickenburg Police Department Lt. Aaron Hadley said.

One month later, police located another stolen truck on the property. According to investigators, the couple received $500 per vehicle when reselling items to a scrapyard in the Phoenix area.

“Old boats and there’s old cars. The information on the buried vehicle we could tell because it was newly graded so you could tell where it was smoothed, and then tractor tires had left the area, so we knew where to dig,” Hadley said, describing just one of three stolen vehicles they found on Sept. 26.

“We solicited the help of our community here, and they were more than willing to drive a Backhoe over there and dig it up for us,” he said. 

Tombstone:

In a separate, unrelated incident, five stolen vehicles from Phoenix were recovered in Tombstone. A fleeing driver was involved in a rollover collision, leading to multiple arrests by the Tombstone Marshal’s Office. Both the driver and passenger were arrested and booked into the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office Jail.

Big picture view:

Large-scale stolen vehicle operations extend beyond Arizona into nearby Puerto Penasco, Mexico, where Mexican authorities arrested seven suspects for stealing more than 30 cars from America.

What’s next:

The Wickenburg couple will be booked into the Maricopa County Jail. Their charges include operating a chop shop, trafficking stolen vehicles, and possession of drugs for personal use.

Crime and Public SafetyMaricopa CountyNews