Accidents Faked : Police Warn on Bump-Run Purse Thieves

Women driving high-priced cars on or near Ventura Boulevard have become the targets of sophisticated purse-snatchers who drive away with the women’s cars after faking accidents, according to Los Angeles police.

At least 20 women, including actress Morgan Fairchild, have been victimized in the past four weeks, detectives said Tuesday. The cars sometimes are recovered in as little as an hour, with the women’s purses emptied of cash.

No arrests have been made, but police have descriptions of at least three suspects, all clean-cut, well-dressed men in their middle 20s.

Detectives said the rash of thefts is a variation on an old technique in which a minor collision is staged to distract a motorist. The difference in this case is the careful selection of victims--women in fancy cars who may have substantial amounts of cash to spend in the shops and restaurants of Ventura Boulevard.

“The object of the attack seems to be the purse and its contents,” Detective Bud Mehringer said. The thieves start by using their cars to make “a slight impact, enough that the driver is aware that there is some type of contact,” he said.

Asked to Look at Damage

“At that point, the suspect or suspects . . . tell the victim there is damage to the rear of her vehicle and indicate that she should come out and inspect it. As she goes to the rear of the car, the suspect will make his move, start it up and drive away.”

Before abandoning the stolen cars in the Hollywood, Rampart, West Los Angeles or Burbank-Glendale areas, the thieves often use the stolen vehicles in a “bump-and-run” against other victims, sometimes on the same day, Mehringer said.

According to one investigator, a man driving a Cadillac struck Fairchild’s Jaguar several weeks ago in Studio City. The man left the Cadillac behind and used the actress’ Jaguar to take a Mercedes Benz soon after, police said.

On Tuesday, police reported two of the automobile “bump-and-runs” near Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue in Studio City, with both victims driving late-model Mercedes. In one of the cases, a man took the car at gunpoint, Sgt. Dean Skinner said.

In a previous theft, a man persuaded a woman that “a funny noise” was coming from her engine, Skinner said. She let the man get behind the wheel to “rev it a little,” and he sped off, the policeman said.

The thefts appear to be the work of at least three men, sometimes working in teams of two, Mehringer said.

The similar incidents have been reported over a wide stretch of Ventura Boulevard, from Studio City to Woodland Hills, Mehringer said.

Police said a woman whose car is struck from behind should exercise “common sense” and take the keys out of the ignition if she steps out of the car. But police also cautioned women against automatically leaving the scene of such an accident.

“Not everybody who has the misfortune to be involved in a traffic collision is a bad guy,” Mehringer said.