THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040565
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
When Petty Officer 3rd Class Todd D. Spivey drove his beloved 1990 Jeep Wagoneer Ltd. into the Howard Johnson parking lot on Monticello Avenue, he wasn't taking any chances.
He pulled into a space under the window of his room so he could hear anything that might be suspicious. He rolled up all the windows and checked that all four doors and the back hatch were locked.
The next morning, the fully loaded midnight blue Jeep - bought only 10 days earlier - was gone. In its place was a maroon Ford Mustang - and a pile of glass.
``When Todd went out to leave for work and saw another car in the space, he was blown away. Then he saw the broken glass on the ground and figured out what happened,'' said Todd's mother, Katie Spivey, who was visiting from Florida when the Jeep was stolen the night of July 17.
Spivey, 21, said he saved money for three years to buy the Jeep.
``It was like everything that I'd been working for was gone.''
That early-morning discovery was only the beginning of a frustrating saga that left Katie Spivey bewildered and angry enough to fire off letters to Norfolk public officials, demanding action and answers to the following questions:
Why did it take more than 50 hours for police to register that her son's vehicle was stolen, and 10 days before detectives followed up on leads?
Why is the Navy housing her son, who just returned from a three-month tour of duty in Haiti, and other sailors at a hotel located in what Spivey calls a ``high-crime area?''
Is the security at Howard Johnson sufficient to protect customers' property?
According to the police report, an officer responded to Todd Spivey's 911 call Monday morning, July 18, but could not complete the paperwork because Todd did not know the temporary license plate numbers or the vehicle identification number.
Katie Spivey said her son called in the information two hours later after she dug up the papers. The vehicle is co-registered in her name. On Wednesday, about 52 hours after the incident, Todd Spivey phoned the police to ask about his case. The police said the vehicle had not been entered as stolen in the computer file.
According to Detective G. Dayton of Norfolk's auto theft unit, the report was delayed because police had to verify that Spivey owned the vehicle and that it was, in fact, stolen.
``We needed a bill of sale before we could report it stolen. He didn't have the information with him,'' Dayton said. ``When it was verified, it was taken care of ASAP. It was put into the computer right in front of them.''
In addition to the Jeep, the thieves took a CD player, a cowboy hat, a pair of shoes and Spivey's wallet. On July 21, when Spivey went to the bank to report his automatic teller machine card missing, he discovered that someone had tried four times to access his account at an ATM on Little Creek Road.
Excited that the bank may have videotaped the car thief trying to use the ATM card, Todd passed the lead on to police. Katie Spivey said 10 days passed before an investigator promised to ``look into it.''
The slow response infuriated Katie Spivey, who filed complaints with Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim and with David Thacker, operations officer for the Police Department. ``I wanted to start something,'' she said. ``My opinion was that the sooner they started looking for the Jeep, the better. It would improve their chances of finding it. If the police weren't going to do it, who was?''
The auto squad has seven investigators who handle as many as five or six cases at once, Dayton said.
``There's so much going on. You have to take the cases as they come,'' Dayton said. ``We'd love to be able to take each case and work it through entirely, but you just can't do that for every one.''
Dayton said the case has been assigned to an investigator who is waiting for the bank's response to his request for security videos. The detective also acknowledged that it is strange the Jeep hasn't been recovered. In most cases, Norfolk police find stolen cars, abandoned, within a few days.
Spivey's anger isn't directed only toward the Police Department. If the Navy chooses to house sailors in Howard Johnson, which is located at the corner of Monticello and Brambleton avenues, the Navy should provide security, she said.
``The Navy is jeopardizing the safety of their own people by placing them in a high-crime area,'' said Spivey, who obtained police reports that show, in one example, that two sailors were assaulted outside the hotel during the week of July 4.
According to the Navy, Spivey's ship, the Norfolk-based guided-missile frigate Simpson, is in drydock at Norshipco. A Navy spokesman said Norshipco has the contractual responsibility to provide temporary lodging to single sailors when the ship is docked.
A Norshipco spokesman confirmed the company has a contract with Howard Johnson, but said the company has received no complaints about safety.
Jeff Smith, Howard Johnson's general manager, declined to comment on questions about hotel security.
KEYWORDS: AUTO THEFT ROBBERY
by CNB