Houston police detail large stolen vehicle bust, and says numbers are trending down

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston police are speaking out for the first time about a major car theft bust that allegedly stretched far beyond the city - and pulled cars in from as far away as Nebraska and Minnesota.

Last week, a man in Nebraska told ABC13 he was shocked to learn his stolen GMC Denali had turned up in Houston. Police now say the same theft ring is accused of taking vehicles from Minnesota as well, including an Audi SUV.

The investigation centered on Weberville Boat and RV Storage, in the 5400 block of Almeda Genoa. Last Thursday, Houston police and several other agencies arrested five people in connection with what court records describe as a sophisticated car theft operation: Gerald Gamboa, Khiem Danh, Luis Leal, Joseph Granados and Tori Aguilar.

According to Sgt. Ben LeBlanc of HPD's auto theft division, the suspects allegedly used a common method to disguise stolen vehicles and resell them to unsuspecting buyers.

"Some common things that we see that they do with these is they switch the VIN numbers on them," LeBlanc said. "They put a fictitious VIN number on there, and then they resell them. They will list them on places such as OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace and sell these vehicles to an unassuming buyer that has no idea they're buying an actual stolen vehicle."

Court records show Aguilar was found with 10 blank key fobs, along with other equipment police say could be used to alter license plates and VIN numbers. LeBlanc said suspects would reprogram the fobs later to create working keys for the stolen cars.

"They will reprogram a key fob later on down the road so that they have basically a new key to start the vehicle and use it as their own," he said.

At Gamboa's court appearance, a judge noted he claimed to have simply been a passenger in one of the vehicles.

"The defendant is alleged in this incident to be a passenger in a vehicle he said he was invited to get into some stuff from a friend, which in all honesty is colloquially understood to be illegal activity," the judge said during the hearing.

A judge ordered all five defendants to stay away from each other and from the storage facility as a condition of bail.

Despite this recent large spike, statistics show Houston's overall car theft numbers are actually down significantly compared to last year.

According to the Houston Police Department, there have been 4,435 stolen vehicle cases from January through the end of June in 2026, down from 6,755 during the same period last year. In Harris County, the sheriff's department reports 1,646 cases through the end of June this year, compared to 2,538 last year.

As for which vehicles are the biggest targets, LeBlanc said General Motors models remain a top pick for thieves, with Corvettes recently on the rise.

"The General Motors vehicles, we do see those are some of our most heavily stolen vehicles," he said. "We've seen an uptick in the Corvettes being stolen as well. But we have just as many Dodges, we have Mercedes - pretty much every make and model gets stolen."