The owner of a Honda in Richmond, Va., did what the police department had been asking Honda owners to do all fall: he put a tracking device in his car. Then the car was stolen anyway. According to the Richmond Police Department’s release, the owner told detectives he had seen the department’s warnings to Honda owners and added the device in response, and that more precise location data let detectives watch several stolen Hondas in Petersburg and arrest two men. blogspot
What detectives found about 25 miles south of the city looked less like a joyride and more like a parts business. In a search of the 2500 block of Deerfield Drive in Petersburg, police say they recovered roughly 35 doors, 10 hoods, 12 trunk lids, dozens of shrink-wrapped Honda components, and several engines tied to Hondas recently stolen from Richmond. The Richmonder reported that the site was a former auto repair business and that one CR-V recently stolen from Richmond was found cut in half. blogspotrichmonder
Two men charged, one held without bond
Police charged Jhon Alexander Jabier, 22, of Newark, New Jersey, and Luiyi Munoz-Inoa, 33, of Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, each with grand larceny-auto and conspiracy to commit larceny. The Richmonder reported that the arrests came on Thursday, Oct. 15, after a Flock camera in Petersburg read the plate of a car that had just been stolen in Richmond. The search of the Deerfield Drive property followed on Friday, Oct. 16. Both men are accused, not convicted. Arrests Made, Several Vehicles Recovered in Honda Theft Ring
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Munoz-Inoa almost went home. According to WWBT’s account of his bond hearings, a judge first granted bond on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at $2,000 on each charge, $4,000 in total, with GPS monitoring. Prosecutors appealed, told the court he faces more than 125 charges in Pennsylvania, and the judge agreed the Pennsylvania warrants made him a significant flight risk. 29news
His lawyer pushed back. The defense said Munoz-Inoa had moved to Petersburg from Pennsylvania three days before his arrest looking for a fresh start, argued the charges are nonviolent with no weapons involved, and disputed whether the Pennsylvania cases should bear on bond at all. Prosecutors told the court he was carrying four cloned key fobs that they believe are tied to the thefts. I could not confirm what the Pennsylvania charges are or where they were filed, and the hearing coverage did not say. Jabier’s bond status has not been reported. 29news29news
Munoz-Inoa is due back in court Nov. 19, and prosecutors said more charges could still be filed. 29news
How the thefts worked, according to police
The method matters to anyone who owns one of these cars, because it means a locked door was not enough. Richmond police say the crew damaged car doors to get inside, then used an electronic device that started the engine, which detectives believe involved cloning key fobs for certain Honda models. A department official, Brian Rogers, told The Richmonder that investigators think the thieves defeated the door mechanism or lock and then used some kind of device once inside. blogspotrichmonder
Police have not said which model years were hit or how the fobs were copied. The publicly documented Honda key-fob weakness, CVE-2022-27254, describes something different: a 2018 Civic remote that sends the same signal for every door-open request, allowing a replay attack. That flaw is about unlocking from a distance. The Richmond crew, by the police account, broke in physically and used electronics only to start the car, which points to an attack on the car’s immobilizer or key-programming system rather than the remote. Until police or prosecutors describe the device in a filing, that part remains unconfirmed. circl
The targets were mostly CR-Vs and Accords; in one week at the end of September, police said seven of nine stolen Hondas were CR-Vs and the other two were Accords. Neighborhoods hit included Woodland Heights and the Northside, along with the Museum District. More than a dozen cars stolen in Richmond in less than a week +2
What 25 cars mean under Virginia law
The two charges on the paperwork so far undersell the number of cars, and Virginia’s statutes explain why prosecutors can live with that for now.
Va. Code § 18.2-95 makes theft of goods worth $1,000 or more grand larceny, punishable by 1 to 20 years in prison, or at the court’s or jury’s discretion up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500. Any running CR-V or Accord clears that bar many times over. The same section allows prosecution in the city or county where the victim lives, so a Honda driven to Petersburg and cut apart there can still be tried in Richmond. virginiavirginia
The conspiracy count does different work. Under § 18.2-23, conspiring to commit larceny where the aggregate value of the goods is $1,000 or more is a separate felony carrying 1 to 20 years, and the case can be tried wherever any part of the plan was made or any act toward it was carried out. That lets prosecutors reach the whole operation, including cars no witness saw a particular defendant drive away. There is a limit: § 18.2-23.1 says a defendant convicted of the completed offense can be convicted only of that offense, not afterward of conspiring to commit it. In practice, conspiracy is the charge that holds the case together while detectives match engines and doors to individual VINs, and the larceny counts are what grow as they do. virginia
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If the Philadelphia connection holds up and federal prosecutors take an interest, 18 U.S.C. § 2322 makes knowingly owning, operating, or working in a chop shop a federal crime punishable by up to 15 years. No federal charge has been announced. cornell
The Philadelphia connection police are chasing
Richmond police say Philadelphia police announced a large Honda chop-shop operation within the past month, one that strips cars for parts headed overseas or elsewhere, and that Richmond detectives are investigating a possible link. They also found several vehicles stolen from New York State at the Petersburg site. blogspot
The Philadelphia case broke on Sept. 29. NBC10 reported that investigators executed four search warrants at three Philadelphia locations that day and took two people into custody, and police Capt. Robert McKeever said they believe many of the parts were being shipped to the Dominican Republic. Richmond police have not said they have evidence tying Munoz-Inoa or Jabier to that ring, only that they are looking. nbcphiladelphia yahoo
The geography is suggestive on its own: a suspect police list as living in Hazle Township, Pa., a second with a last known address in Newark, cars from New York, and a garage in Petersburg sitting on the I-95 corridor that links all of them.
The Hondas thieves want, and what owners are left with
Hondas keep showing up in these cases for a reason the national numbers make plain. The National Insurance Crime Bureau counted 659,880 vehicle thefts nationwide in 2025, down 23% from 2024, with the Accord second on its most-stolen list at 17,797 thefts and the CR-V ninth at 9,809. Thefts overall are falling; these two models are still near the top because their parts fit a lot of cars and sell easily. nicb
For Richmond owners, the count is grim. Police say five stolen cars have been recovered and returned, and parts from five more were found at the Petersburg site. That leaves 15 Hondas unaccounted for in the police tally. A car that comes back as a stack of doors is a total loss, covered only if the owner carried comprehensive insurance, and even the lucky ones are not whole. One victim told WWBT her recovered car was still at the dealership and would not start. Prosecutors said roughly 30 people have been affected. Arrests Made, Several Vehicles Recovered in Honda Theft Ring
Police say no Hondas have been stolen in Richmond since the arrests. That is the strongest evidence so far that the department arrested the right crew, and it will be tested in a Richmond courtroom on Nov. 19, when the Pennsylvania charges, the four fobs, and the engines matched to Richmond VINs start getting weighed as evidence instead of described at a podium. blogspot
The case was cracked by two kinds of tracking: a city-contracted plate camera that logs every passing car, and a device one owner chose to put in his own. Should Virginia cities keep expanding license-plate reader networks to catch rings like this one, or should catching car thieves rest on trackers drivers choose to install themselves?
Images Via: Richmond VA police
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