KC man sentenced for conspiring to steal SUVs, trucks from out-of-state dealerships
A Kansas City man was sentenced this week to nearly four years in federal prison for conspiring to steal SUVs and pickup trucks from out-of-state dealerships and bringing them to Missouri to sell on the black market, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Timothy Hood, 38, pleaded guilty in March in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City to one count of conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles across state lines and one count of aiding and abetting the transportation of a stolen vehicles across state lines.
According to court records, Hood and others planned to steal at least 10 vehicles from three dealerships in Nebraska and Iowa, including GMC Sierra pickup trucks, GMC Yukon Denali SUVs and Cadillac Escalades. The loss amount for the stolen vehicles was $710,933.
Court records said the group then drove to Kansas City and placed fraudulent vehicle identification numbers on the vehicles.
Many of the VINs used were from other vehicles owned by dealerships, making the stolen vehicles harder to trace, the news release said.
The 10 vehicles were eventually recovered by law enforcement at various locations in Kansas City in 2016, according to court records.
Two of the vehicles were found at the residence of Hood’s girlfriend in the 8300 block of Flora Avenue.
In September 2016, Hood was pulled over while driving one of the SUVs with a fraudulent VIN, the news release said.
Investigators searched Hood’s laptop, which was in the vehicle, and found it contained “scanned images of templates for temporary Kansas license plates, insurance cards, notary stamps, bills of sale, release of liens and bar code labels of VINs,” the news release said. Authorities also found the laptop was used to search for legitimate VINs used or affixed to other stolen vehicles.
Kansas City police and the FBI led the investigation.
A judge sentenced Hood on Tuesday to three years and 10 months in federal prison and ordered Hood to pay $212,998 in restitution.
