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Clovis chop shop raid leads to 7 arrests
A crackdown on auto thieves in the Fresno area has resulted in 12 arrests, the shutdown of three chop shops and the recovery of 70 stolen vehicles, police said Wednesday.
Fresno police said the 12 people arrested were "prolific auto thieves."
The Fresno HEAT (Help Eliminate Auto Theft) Task Force teamed with law enforcement officers from Tulare and Kern counties and the California Highway Patrol in the weeklong operation in Fresno and the South Valley.
12 arrested in Fresno auto-theft sting
12 arrested in Fresno auto-theft sting
Twelve people, nine of them gang members, were arrested by a Fresno anti-auto theft team in a weeklong sting operation against prolific car thieves, police said.
Sgt. Timothy Tietjen of the Help Eliminate Auto Theft team said the operation culminated Thursday with the arrest of a man who had agreed to sell undercover officers a stolen pickup.
He was taken into custody when he arrived with the truck for the sale.
In an unusual move, the owner of Sears and Kmart is publicly seeking out additional businesses to operate in its stores, including several Valley locations.
Sears Holdings Corp. launched a website earlier this year detailing information about store locations available to rent -- in both closed stores and ones still open.
Five Valley stores show up on www.shcrealty.com as places the company would welcome new businesses operating within the existing stores. They include Kmart stores in Clovis, Coalinga and Kingsburg, and Sears stores and their auto centers in Sierra Vista Mall in Clovis and Manchester Center in Fresno.
A disgruntled worker drove over people at a Mazda factory on Tuesday, killing one and injuring 10, stunning Japan just two years after an auto worker went on a deadly rampage in central Tokyo.
Toshiaki Hikiji, 42, was arrested about an hour later on attempted murder charges after fleeing in his car from Mazda's Ujina plant in Hiroshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, police said.
Japanese media reports said Hikiji was a contract worker who had been let go in April. He bore a grudge against the automaker and went there with a knife with the intention to kill, they said.
A sport utility vehicle that prompted a bomb scare in Idaho belongs to an attorney charged in a murder-for-hire plot.
Police say a worker at an auto shop in Coeur d'Alene spotted an explosive device underneath the Mitsubishi Endeavor on Tuesday and called authorities.
The vehicle is registered to Edgar J. Steele, whom federal prosecutors have accused of hiring a hit man to try to kill his wife and mother-in-law. Steel was arrested Friday and pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his initial court appearance.
Seven Peckerwood gang members are in custody following the raid of a chop shop Thursday in Clovis, police said.
The gang members were not only dealing in stolen auto parts, but selling methamphetamine, ecstasy and firearms, Sgt. Timothy Tietjen of the Help Eliminate Auto Theft Team said.
Officers seized one-quarter pound of methamphetamine and four firearms at the shop on the 8100 block of North Sunnyside Avenue.
In the past two weeks, officers have made 30 felony arrests of suspected auto thieves, Tietjen said.
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