Apr 29, 2009 3:47 pm US/Pacific
Stolen Katrina Cars Spur Indictment
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
A Rio Linda tow truck operator was indicted by a Sacramento Federal Grand Jury today for allegedly moving and attempting to sell stolen cars left from the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
The U.S. Attorney's office has charged Gabriel Dean Watters with nine counts of transporting stolen vehicles and nine counts of selling or receiving stolen vehicles. The indictment states that between November of 2005 and April of 2006 Watters made multiple trips to Gulfport Mississippi in an effort to arrange for the repair and transport of at least 20 cars.
Watters actually rented a vacant lot in Biloxi, Mississippi as a storage lot for the cars where he hired another tow operator to store and repair the cars that he acquired through several months after the hurricane. Most of the cars were either abandoned or disappeared from their homes in the wake of Katrina hitting New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The owners were subsequently paid by insurance companies for the theft or alleged destruction when they could not be found.
Watters obtained the cars from several places over the period of four to five months during the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006.
After repairing the cars, the court documents say he drove them on a flatbed to his home in Rio Linda and then applied for title for the cars. Tow truck drivers are allowed to ask for new titles for vehicles either because they are abandoned or salvaged. The re-titling process is less stringent for cars valued less than $4,000 so Watters attempted to put the value of all 20 cars at less than $4,000. The title company red flagged the cars. As a result of their suspicions they refused to give Watters title.
A criminal complaint filed in this case says that many of the cars' original owners were paid by their insurance companies even though the cars were never recovered. Watters actually sold one vehicle, a Volvo XC-90, to Sacramento resident David Hotea. Hotea says that when he attempted to license the vehicle, he learned that it was reported stolen. Turns out, the Volvo was owned by a woman who was forced to abandon the vehicle during the evacuation of New Orleans. The owner had every intention of returning for the car but it was missing. Subsequently, her insurance company, Deep South, paid out a claim of more than $20,000 for the loss of the vehicle. Eventually, Hotea paid the insurance company a fee to keep the car.
The FBI investigated the case and during a search warrant of Watters' home they found ten of the stolen vehicles. Federal agents eventually tracked Watters' movements through debit card transactions and airline purchases during 2005-06.
Federal officials arrested Watters on April 15th. He remains in a Sacramento jail as a flight risk. A confidential informant told federal officials that Watters was attempting to flee to Mexico to avoid prosecution.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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