thanks Julie well there has been an alarming upswing in the number of vehicle thefts in some bay area communities but law enforcement is trying to get a handle on the problem Josh Thomas joins us now live in Pinellas County to explain I Josh afternoon Stacey local law enforcement agencies share information all the time but when the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and other departments started noticing a disturbing trend they banded together to try and stop the problem the number of cars being stolen off some Bay Area streets is on the rise that's led to the formation of an auto theft Task Force between Tampa and st. Petersburg Police and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office during the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year there's been a double-digit increase in vehicle thefts in all three jurisdictions o as we looked at our suspects as well as the suspects in st. Petersburg we found a trend which was most of them were juveniles since the task force was formed late this summer 64 people have been arrested and 46 vehicles have been recovered and there appears to be a distinct pattern no we know being taken and where the car is being dropped off our cars that are being stolen in st. Peter being dropped off in Tampa in Tampa cars are being dropped off in st. Pete vilela Sheriff Bob wealth Harry told the media in many cases they have turned using helicopters to track the suspects down but there are times when they end up following the suspects down city streets because these people do this and sometimes several times a night they are putting the public at risk they're putting the public in danger by running red lights and by running people off the road and engaging in very dangerous driving law enforcement tells us in both cases the auto thefts are simply crimes of opportunity that can be avoided seventy-five percent or no one to be unlocked and or have the keys in the cars so that's a huge number and it does paint the picture it does tell a story now in the past stolen vehicles ended up in chop shops but we're told that in this latest rash of vehicle thefts they quite frankly are being stolen to be taken for joyrides stacy is there any particular type of vehicle that they're targeting one that's maybe easier to steal than another Josh well you would certainly think that the high-end vehicles would be the one that people would be targeting but quite frankly not only have they been targeting high-end vehicles but they've also been targeting not so high in vehicle so that these point of view they're simply using them to get from point to another they're all the cars are fair game sounds like all right Josh Thomas good morning thank you