HPG to scour websites for stolen vehicles for sale

The Highway Patrol Group is now going online in going after car thieves attempting to sell their stolen merchandise on cyberspace.

In particular, the HPG will be sifting through buy-and-sell websites to search for possibly stolen vehicles and run after carjackers.

Senior Supt. Arnold Gunnacao, the new HPG director, said he would deploy “techie” teams to scour such websites for transactions involving stolen vehicles.

“The Internet is now the playground of various criminal elements, including car theft syndicates. We want to make our presence felt in their playground,” the police official said.

Buy-and-sell websites offer various products, both brand new and second hand, which includes motorcycles, cars, sport utility vehicles and the like.

Gunnacao noted that such websites are used by car thieves wanting to sell their stolen wares to unsuspecting buyers.

The HPG is currently selecting “information technology” savvy policemen from its ranks who will be tasked to monitor buy and sell websites for vehicles being sold online.

“The teams will be checking if the license plates and other basic information about the vehicles are in our stolen vehicle list,” Gunnacao said.

The techie teams will be also tasked to pose as buyers of vehicles being sold online and conduct buy-bust operations to apprehend car thieves.