AIR BAG THIEVES HIT EIGHT CARS IN AREA.Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer Automotive air bags once again have become a precious commodity in the Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. , with thieves breaking into eight vehicles in the past week to steal the inflatable in·flat·a·ble adj. Designed to be filled with air or gas before use: an inflatable mattress. n. An object or device that can be filled with air or gas, especially: a. protective devices from steering columns steering column n (Aut) → colonne f de direction steering column steer n (Aut) → Lenksäule f steering column , authorities said Tuesday. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County sheriff's Sgt. Mitch Slack 1. (operating system) slack - Internal fragmentation. Space allocated to a disk file but not actually used to store useful information. 2. (jargon) slack said from July 9-12 thieves stole eight air bags in the Saugus area. ``It's been going on for quite some time now,'' Slack said. Authorities suspect that the thieves sell the devices to small body shops at a fraction of their value. Lyana Browdy of the Automobile Club of Southern California The Automobile Club of Southern California was founded December 13, 1900 in Los Angeles as one of the nation's first motor clubs dedicated to improving roads, proposing traffic laws and improvement of overall driving conditions. said the bags are generally difficult to steal because of what is involved in removing them. Auto Club officials said in order to remove the air bags without having them activate, the thieves had to pop open the hoods and damage the cars' batteries. ``(Air bag theft) seems to be happening more now,'' Slack said, noting that foreign cars are usually targeted. ``It's usually the Nissans, the Hondas and the other imports.'' Auto experts said air bags cost from $1,000 to $2,000 and suspect that thieves sell them for as little as $200. Reynaldo Boyd, a Saugus resident whose 1993 Toyota Celica For the high-performance versions of the Celica, see . The Toyota Celica name has been applied to a series of popular pony cars made by the Japanese company Toyota. The name is ultimately derived from the Latin word coelica was burglarized last year, said the theft of his air bag proved far worse than when his car radio was stolen earlier. ``The entire steering wheel was ripped apart when they took my air bag,'' Boyd said. ``I remember when my radio was stolen and it cost me about $150 to get another one. It cost me $1,600 to get a new air bag and my wheel fixed.'' Authorities said two weeks ago thieves raided a Santa Clarita Valley location, making off with air bags from three vehicles. Details were not immediately available on the vehicles that were broken into, authorities said. Locating the stolen air bags may prove difficult for investigators because they commonly do not have serial numbers, officials said. Anyone with information regarding these thefts are urged to call the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station at (805) 255-1121. |
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