The Four Car Gambit

There are many ways to improve a neighborhood, but hiding four stolen automobiles on your property is not among them. This useful principle was apparently overlooked in Silver Springs last week, when detectives with the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigation Unit served a search warrant on Badger Street.

At least it wasn’t another sex offender who had forgotten to comply with the law. Progress arrives in peculiar ways.

The detectives, gentlemen of uncommon persistence, searched the property and discovered four vehicles reported stolen out of Lyon County. This was unfortunate for the automobiles, which had evidently hoped to begin new lives under different management. One imagines that a stolen car dreams of nothing more than a peaceful retirement somewhere with a fresh license plate and nobody asking troublesome questions.

The property owner, Tracy Smith, was arrested and presented with a collection of charges substantial enough to make a person wonder whether the law had been waiting all week to unload its paperwork. Among them were several counts involving possession and receiving of stolen property, possession of another person’s identifying information, possession of a controlled substance, burglary tools, and drug paraphernalia.

The charges for the other three suspects have not yet been released because the investigation remains ongoing. This is probably wise. When four stolen cars are sitting around waiting to explain themselves, there is no reason to interrupt the detectives while they are still counting the bumpers.

Thus, another mystery that modern Nevada criminals must contend with: if you steal a car, apparently the hardest part is deciding where to put it.