A man who fitted his pickup truck with apparatus to haul away cars, just like a tow truck, has been charged with stealing vehicles in North Philly, Southwest Philly and the Northeast.
Lamarr Miller, 44, surrendered March 12 and is charged with stealing seven cars. Police said Wednesday that he had towed the vehicles to a scrapyard in North Philly and then sold each for $300 to $600.
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Miller allegedly targeted cars to steal that appeared old or abandoned, investigators said.
"A lot of these vehicles, they've been parked for some time," Capt. Jason Smith, of the police department's Major Crimes Unit, said Wednesday, per 6ABC. "There's debris on the vehicles, flat tires, waiting for repair."
Titan Auto Recycling, the scrapyard where police said Miller sold the cars, is cooperating with the investigation, and investigators are contacting other scrapyards to determine whether Miller is responsible for more stolen vehicles.
The tow truck Miller used wasn't "easily recognizable" as being a tow truck, NBC10 reported. It looks like an ordinary pickup truck, but a towing apparatus comes out of the rear. Miller allegedly used the same truck to steal a vehicle in Chester in January 2022, police said.
The tow truck has been impounded, according to police. Miller was released from custody after posting bail set at $105,000.
According to citywide crime statistics from Philadelphia police, in 2024 there have been 2,776 vehicles reported stolen through March 17, about a 40% decrease compared to the same point last year.
Mayor Cherelle Parker pledged to remove abandoned cars from the streets as part of a larger "clean and green" initiative. Philadelphia reportedly received nearly 40,000 complaints of abandoned vehicles in 2023.