You might be surprised to learn crime does pay, especially auto theft. During the 1990s, New York City was averaging over a hundred thousand vehicle thefts a year. New Yorkers accepted their fate, frequently finding empty parking spaces where their vehicles were parked the night before. Victims called the police, who took theft reports without offering much hope they would ever see their car again. The NYPD's Auto Crime Division is a hundred and twenty-member unit created to combat auto theft, stopping those who roam the streets at night looking to steal your vehicle. Most Americans have been the victim of some form of auto crime or know someone who has been. What they don't know is why, how, or who stole their vehicle, or what happens to it after it disappears. Grand Theft Auto peels back the curtain, exposing the nuts and bolts of the auto theft industry.

Would you believe a pair of nuns stole Mother Superior's car to go on a wild shopping spree in the Bronx? Or the double-dealing confidential informant who helped recover Mike Tyson's stolen motorcycle minutes before it was shipped out of the country? What about the diplomat's husband who drove around Manhattan in a stolen Mercedes? Or the silver-tongued three-hundred-pound car thief who managed to stay one step ahead of the law?

Retired detective Vic Ferrari shares his unique insight and colorful stories from his days assigned to the New York City Police Department's Auto Crime Division. If you enjoy Live PD, are fascinated with police work, or want to know who stole your car, you've picked up the right book. Vic Ferrari, author of NYPD: Through the Looking Glass: Stories From Inside America's Largest Police Department and The NYPD's Flying Circus: Cops, Crime & Chaos, and Dickheads & Debauchery and Other Ingenious Ways to Die is a retired New York City Police Department detective with over twenty years of experience in the auto theft industry.