Top investigator trains next top sleuths

Lillington Police Department’s Sgt. Stephen Gardner was named one of the world’s top three investigators last year after he solved a case of car thefts that took down a multi-state ring of thieves. Now, he’s employing those top detective skills in helping train the world’s next top sleuths in a special class at Central Carolina Community College called Auto Theft Investigation 101.

Trainees from several law enforcement agencies enrolled in Thursday’s class to learn from experts with the National Insurance Crime Bureau and other agencies who worked with Gardner to halt the heists in 2023. Gardner helped organize Thursday’s training.

The one-day course was designed to provide officers with a basic understanding of how to identify, combat and investigate auto thefts like the ones Gardner and his partners solved. More than a dozen crooks were linked to those thefts of high-end cars that plagued 18 dealers across the Southeast between 2021 and 2023.

And those thefts are growing.

“The use of stolen vehicles in other violent crimes for social capital on media platforms and the export of stolen vehicles has reached prolific proportions across the United States including North Carolina,” Gardner said. “Estimates by United States Customs and Border Protection are that approximately 200,000 stolen vehicles are exported from the U.S. each year and shipped to foreign countries with falsified or fraudulent papers where they bring a much higher profit for criminal organizations.”

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