- Three individuals arrested for stealing 13 high-performance Dodge vehicles.
- Social media posts incriminating the suspects led to their capture.
- Thieves face multiple charges, including conspiracy and vehicle theft.
Stealing cars is obviously a crime, and stealthy criminals sometimes find a way to evade capture. More often, though, suspected car thieves get caught and that’s especially likely when they blatantly brag about their illegal exploits online. Sit back and soak this one in because as criminals go, at least one of the fellows in this story doesn’t appear to be the sharpest spoon in the drawer.
Police arrested three men recently in connection with 13 stolen cars dating back to July of 2023. In that same month, they arrested one of the three, Jesse Venegas, after seeing him loitering at a Dodge dealership.
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When they apprehended him he was carrying spare key fobs and burglary tools. The very next day Venegas was out of jail and surveillance video captured his image as he allegedly drove a stolen Charger near where he’d just been arrested the day before.
A little over two months later, investigators say Venegas appeared on social media where they pointed to a gray Dodge Charger and said “Let’s take that one.” About four days later the owner of that same car reported it stolen and Venegas posted a video of himself driving said car.
A week later a similar incident happened. A Challenger Hellcat was stolen and Venegas again posted a video of himself driving it. The next day, the owner of that car informed police that it had a GPS tracker inside.
Police tracked the car to a residence where the owner spilled the beans. He told officers that Venegas paid him $200-300 to store stolen cars there and admitted to doing so for seven or eight cars over the last year.
Over the next several months, Venegas and his alleged two co-conspirators, Nathan Olivas and Christopher Anderson, continued to steal vehicles, post about them on social media, and offer them for sale for only a few thousand dollars each.
Authorities believe they also ran a chop shop. Now, the three are facing charges including felony conspiracy, vehicle theft, possession of stolen vehicle, vandalism, receipt of stolen property, and operating a chop shop. At this time it’s unclear when their next court date is.
