With the explosion of car theft in cities like Milwaukee, some people are frustrated by the lack of police response. Many police departments had funding pulled and their ranks whittled down a few years ago, so that combined with a surge in crime has made keeping up impossible. That’s where some enterprising individuals have offered their services as stolen car hunters, a profession that can be loaded with risk.
Watch a violent suspect get in a massive shootout with Florida police at the end of a chase.
One of these stolen car hunters, Jerod Brumfield (aka Ace Smith) of Milwaukee, just pled guilty to two of the six charges brought against him in court, reports WISN. Now he’s going to be doing hard time after wounding two children in the shooting.
The shooting took place on July 27, 2021 and was a road rage incident, not Brumfield attempting to recover a stolen vehicle. Even if he were trying to get back a car that was taken, shooting people as they’re driving down the street hardly seems like an effective way to go about it.
By the way, one of the kids who was shot, a 17-year-old girl, was paralyzed from the waist down. Her and the other kids in the car were throwing eggs at vehicles, which led to Brumfield shooting them.
We’ve seen a number of these stolen car hunters or recovery services advertising online, especially through social media. And we’ve spoken with people who have hired different ones with mixed results. Some victims afterwards have strongly suspected the recovery specialist was the one who stole their ride, or at least has a working relationship with the person who did.
Ultimately, what we’re saying is be careful about these stolen car hunters. Some might be legit, we can’t say for sure, but we know many are operating outside the boundaries of the law. And some are straight-up scam artists. What’s worse than just being victimized by a car thief is afterward being victimized by someone who claims for a sum of cash they’ll get your ride back, then they disappear.
