http://www.fox8.com/news/sns-ap-oh--cleveland-autotheft,0,2153690.story

By Associated Press
4:40 PM EDT, June 12, 2010

CLEVELAND (AP) — A Cleveland man frustrated over the theft of his Honda Civic decided to track it down himself, and police say his search led to the bust of a car-theft ring and chop shop.

Twenty-year-old Christopher Bravo said he saw his car on Monday in a garage near one of the city's police stations. Police showed up and authorities say they arrested nine people, found a vacant home full of car parts and towed away six stolen Civics.

The bust was made by a department that has one officer assigned to the auto theft unit in a city where more than 4,000 cars were stolen last year. That's down from 12 members six years ago.

Bravo's car was stolen May 20, about a month after he bought it. He says he put the word out that the car was missing, and received a tip that led him to the garage where it was found — in dozens of pieces.

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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

Good for Mr. Bravo for doing the legwork himself. Thanks to him there's one less chop shop operating. If there were more citizens like Mr. Bravo I'm sure a lot more of these illegal operations could be put out of business.

BRAVO to Mr. Bravo!!! :clap :clap :clap

My car was stolen in Cleveland before in front of my grandparents house. I had parked it across the street from my grandparents house. I didn't even know it was gone because my grandparents had asked me did i park it on the street and i said yeah. Then they said it's not out there. So i looked out the window and it was gone and i was so mad because the car was nice. I forgot to put the steering wheel column lock on. My car that was stolen was a 1992 Chevy Lumina. I really liked that car. The police found my car about a few blocks away from a car repair garage that operates as a chop shop late at night because i used to drive by there sometimes at night and i would see the garage door open. I thought it was strange that a car repair garage would be open at night. So i figured something illegal was going on in there. My grandparents street has had cars stolen before. I hate criminals. It upsets me that people who have a job work hard to buy nice things and you got these b*tch ass punk criminals who take your stuff because they feel like it and they don't want a job.