I would cause bodily harm to this db if he did that to me. I'm not kidding.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...7?OpenDocument

Police: Man stole unattended broken-down cars
By Patrick M. O'Connell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Friday, May. 16 2008

When Sherita Britt's car sputtered to a halt on the shoulder of Interstate 70,
she wasn't surprised. The Pontiac Grand Prix's computer system had been giving
her problems for weeks.

But when she returned about four hours later to try for the second time to
retrieve her broken-down car from the highway, Britt was more than a little
taken aback by what she found. Or, more accurately, what she didn't find.

"My car was gone," said Britt, 23, of Florissant. "We went straight on down the
highway, and I was like, where's my car? I thought I had missed it."

Britt's car, police allege, became one of at least 50 abandoned vehicles stolen
from the side of St. Louis-area highways by one man during the last two years.
James H. Bruce, 62, of St. Louis, is accused of using his flatbed tow truck to
haul away broken-down vehicles so he could take them to area scrap yards for
cash, said St. Louis County Detective Bill Muller of the auto crimes unit.

Bruce was charged Wednesday with two counts of felony stealing a motor vehicle,
including the theft in September of Britt's car, according to a warrant. County
detectives worked with investigators from Ferguson, Berkeley and Hazelwood on
the Bruce case and more charges are likely, police said.

"Basically he'd just drive the highways looking for broken-down cars," Muller
said. "The heavier the car, the more money he'd get."

A smaller car might fetch $100, an older model Cadillac as much as $600. Scrap
yards are supposed to ask for a vehicle's title before accepting it, but Muller
said that rarely happens.

Bruce, Muller alleged, stole vehicles ranging from compacts to pickups. On
snowy days, Bruce could pick up as many as three cars that had faltered in bad
weather, the detective said.

"He was all over. If the opportunity was right for him, he'd do it," Muller
said. "It'd take him less than 10 minutes to do it, to take it up and go."

It is unlikely Bruce will face charges on even a fraction of the vehicles he is
alleged to have stolen since they have been smashed at scrap yards, police
said. Muller said the number of cars reported stolen from highways in the
county has dropped since Bruce was arrested in February.

The arrest, however, is of little consolation to Britt.

"It's very frustrating because I still don't have a car," Britt said. She now
uses her mother's car to get to work.

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