This is Your FBI: Auto Theft - Charles Meade

This is your FBI. This is your FBI, an official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, presented as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. To your FBI, you look for national security, and to the Equitable Society for Financial Security.

These two great institutions are dedicated to the protection of you, your home, and your country. The knife, the story of a crime against the community. Auto theft. Five years ago, the theft of a car in your neighborhood was a matter of passing interest.

In a newspaper, it was reported on the back pages or not at all. But today, the automobile is graduated from the luxury class to one of vital necessity. An automobile in first-class condition is a high-priced commodity, and there are hundreds of buyers for every seller.

Into this fertile field of buyers at any price has moved a racketeer. A racketeer who needs only a car, a stolen car, a forged bill of sale and an unsuspecting buyer. Mobility is his chief asset, but it's also his chief liability.

Because the act of driving a stolen car across a state line is a federal offense. And the FBI in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies has been relentless in this war against this type of criminal.

Sometimes the first lead on the case of this type comes as the result of a routine check. Beginning as this one did with a couple driving along a road south of Richmond. A distinguished looking couple, a couple just married.

How can you even see, darling, that rain is coming down so hard? We'll stop at the next town if it doesn't let up. Tired? No, no, I'll be fine. This was a wonderful idea. What, dear?