Legit auto parts sales fall more than 50% on stolen ones

Santo Domingo. – The lack of a law which regulates transactions on used auto parts and accessories has made an underworld business profitable for thieves and spare part “fences” as well.

Pedro, a man who makes a living as a taxi driver, has bought hubcaps for car seven times just this month. “I can’t leave the vehicle parked not even for 5 minutes in the building’s parking lot because they rip me off; sometimes I think that I buy the same that robbed to me,” he said, quoted by news source eldia.com.do.

And despite Police assurances that it knows who steals the parts and where they are sold, it does little to solve those crimes.

No regulation

“The auto parts are sold as Chinese in all corners and without regulation,” said the head of the auto parts and accessories dealers grouped in Anaderavem, Marino Robles, who revealed that the group aims to submit a bill to monitor the origin of those articles sold in the country, as in his view the only way to halt the theft of parts and accessories.

“With this legislation we will make it more difficult for hoodlums, because no one will be able to dismantle a vehicle without a license and those who do will have to be punished.”

He said legal sales of spare parts have fallen more than 50% as the result of the informal and criminal market.

Coveted by thieves, in Police crosshairs

Robles said the items stolen most frequently are hubcaps and rear view mirrors.

Reacting to complaints, Police spokesman Máximo Báez said businesses which sell auto parts informally will be searched in the next few days and heighten measures to control it.