For the second time in less than a week, Sonia Derrick of Grundy Center is without her car. Last weekend her 1989 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight was stolen from campus while her son Lane Danielsen, an ISU football player, was borrowing it. The car was initially stolen sometime between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday when Danielsen was preparing for the UNLV game, she said. “Lane made his first touchdown Saturday,” Derrick said. “At first I thought the football players were playing a prank.” The two soon realized it wasn’t a prank, and they reported the car stolen to the Department of Public Safety. Derrick said shortly after DPS reported the car stolen to the National Crime Information Center, they received a call from the Chicago Police Department saying they had the car and two suspects in custody. Derrick had made plans to pick up the car in Chicago on Wednesday. She said she called the Chicago Police Department before she left so she knew where to go. Police called both of the impound lots in the area, and the car was nowhere to be found. “They can’t find my car right now,” Derrick said. “I don’t know if it was stolen again or what.” Although the fate of Derrick’s car is still unknown, many of the cars stolen in Ames and Story County are never recovered. Instead, they are stripped and their parts are pawned, law-enforcement officials said. In 1999, 46 cars were stolen in Ames, and Story County officials dealt with 17 thefts. About 6,700 cars were reported stolen in Iowa in 1997. One of the main problems local law-enforcement agencies face is the pawning of car parts from stolen vehicles, said Capt. Gary Foster of the Story County Sheriff’s Department. “The big thing right now with motor-vehicle theft is [the thieves] take the cars apart and sell them individually for more than the car is worth,” Foster said. He said cars stolen in Story County often end up in other states where they are stripped for their parts. Ames Police Chief Dennis Ballantine said most automobiles stolen in Ames are stripped in what he calls “chop shops,” where the cars are literally stripped to nothing, then the parts are sold for large sums of money. This makes it extremely difficult for authorities to find a car or catch a thief, he said. “When they go to a chop shop they are torn apart and you have to find a hidden serial number,” Ballantine said. Both Ballantine and Director of Public Safety Loras Jaeger said motor-vehicle theft is not a significant problem in the area, but it’s a huge problem for individuals who have had their cars stolen. Ballantine said the rate of recovery is low in Ames. Out of the 46 stolen cars in 1999, only four have been found in Ames. A few others were found outside the area. Foster said Story County authorities have a 40 percent recovery rate. Jaeger said six cars were reported stolen to his department between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000. Jaeger said cars reported stolen from campus are generally found in the surrounding area. Occasionally, he said, they will be found on campus. However, Jaeger said most vehicles reported stolen from campus actually aren’t stolen. They are sometimes towed or repossessed without the owner’s knowledge, he said, or people simply forget where they left their cars. Foster said anyone caught stealing a car will face heavy fines and jail time. If a car is worth less than $10,000, the thief can be charged with a class D felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison. If the vehicle is worth more than $10,000, the charge goes up to a class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Several measures can be taken to prevent car thefts, Foster said. “The most obvious is to take out the keys and lock the doors,” he said. He also suggested using alarms or devices such as The Club and parking in well-lit areas or garages.