Hondo Underwood is a former car thief. He stole hundreds of cars in and around Denver, Colorado, between 2016 and 2017.
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00:00My name is Hondo Underwood. I stole cars valued at over a million dollars.
00:04Some were stolen to order, some went to chop shops.
00:08This is how crime works.
00:11I've probably stole two to three hundred vehicles.
00:14To me, once I got proficient at stealing, there was no time of day that was safe.
00:19I would be even fine with stealing a vehicle while you're sitting on your couch.
00:24I've put a lot of people in harm's way.
00:27Not just myself, not just the other people that were on the road,
00:31but also the police officers that were involved in chasing me and pursuing me.
00:41As a Marine, or a former Marine, I'm always aware of my surroundings no matter what, even to this day.
00:47But when you mix former military attention detail and drugs, it enhances that even more.
00:56Especially when you're in a stolen vehicle and running from the police.
01:00There's been high-speed chases that I've been in five, six times in a day
01:04that range anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes.
01:08The police officers that were telling me were not just regular uniformed police officers.
01:13It was a CMAT team. It was the Auto Theft Task Force out of Denver, Lakewood, Jefferson County.
01:18And at that point in time in 2017, police officers were going through this, I guess, phase
01:24where they're not supposed to pursue high-speed getaways.
01:29There was times where I would taunt the police.
01:31I'd see them, and they were just waiting for me to make that move.
01:34There was times where I'd wave at them. There was times where I'd flip them off.
01:38There was times that I'd just drive by and smile because I knew they weren't going to do nothing.
01:43And when they did, they knew I was getting away.
01:45It was definitely an experience where it went from nervousness to, okay, let's have fun.
01:51It was a rough game of cat and mouse.
01:53There were times that I was in a stolen vehicle, and I pulled a gun on an undercover cop.
01:58And I didn't realize it was an undercover cop until he reached for his radio.
02:03Maybe two, three weeks later, I was apprehended by 32 police officers.
02:13I stole cars between 2016 and I was apprehended in 2017.
02:19During the first time, I was selling drugs, and I started using them as well.
02:26The first vehicle that I ever stole was an older model Suburban.
02:31The ignitions are very easy to disable and start the vehicle.
02:35Essentially, it was in a parking lot where it was low-lit and plenty of vehicles around,
02:41so nobody really—it was kind of undercover.
02:44I felt a sense of rush, like an adrenaline rush.
02:47I'm like, well, what do we do next? Where's the next one?
02:51It was almost an addiction to doing it.
02:54From there, I moved on from a Suburban to Dodge Rams, F-350s, Cadillac Escalades.
03:00And the reason being is they were all very similar in a sense of design and security.
03:06In the beginning, I had a fascination with keys.
03:09I was using jiggler keys to start the ignitions.
03:13I could take any kind of key, and if it was shaved down correctly,
03:16I can open up any kind of padlock, vehicle locks,
03:20but it was pretty much the luck of the draw whether or not it was going to work.
03:25So after that, I discarded the keys and found other ways that were guaranteed 100% of the time
03:32to be able to start and drive off.
03:34So then I got into flatheads and vice grips.
03:37A flathead was able to open the vehicle just like a jiggler key,
03:42break off glow rings, they're called, on the vehicles where the ignition is at,
03:47and put a set of vice grips around them and just pretty much turn them forward
03:51and use the flathead to then start the vehicle.
03:53In the beginning, to steal a vehicle, it was anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes.
03:59During that time, I used a lookout and a getaway car.
04:03It got down to 6 to 7 seconds that I was stealing a vehicle.
04:07I'd try to keep my personal baggage at a minimum.
04:12Just because if I had to jump out of a vehicle, the chances of leaving things behind were greater.
04:19But there were a lot of times I had anywhere from handguns to shotguns to fully automatic weapons.
04:27There was a time where I remember pulling up to a house.
04:31The vehicle was parked across the street.
04:33There was a family sitting in their living room,
04:36and with the blinds open, you can see them sitting there watching TV.
04:40I started the truck, and as I was driving off, I remember them looking out.
04:46What was going through their mind?
04:48What was going through my mind?
04:50I don't believe that car theft is a victimless crime.
04:53When you steal somebody's car, you're also stealing their ways to work,
04:59to get food for their children.
05:01You never know the circumstances somebody's in.
05:05And when you're high, when you're on drugs, you don't care about that.
05:12You don't care about yourself, let alone anybody else.
05:21The organizations that I worked for had a lot of power and a lot of money, almost unlimited.
05:29When I first started interacting with them, it was because I was selling drugs.
05:34It was a slow, progressive relationship.
05:38I never really asked questions as to what the vehicles were going to be then used for.
05:43To me, it was just the money.
05:45If it was more of a smaller vehicle, I'd make anywhere from $200 to $500.
05:52If it was a bigger vehicle, and I knew, especially if they gave me details of something they had in mind,
05:59and I knew what money they can be making, that price goes up.
06:04I can make anywhere from, on a bigger vehicle, $1,000 to $10,000.
06:10To get five ten vehicles at $5,000 a piece in six seconds each, I can make $50,000 in under an hour.
06:21Some of the vehicles that I have stolen went to El Paso.
06:25Texas is known for cartel-related crimes and thefts.
06:31There were vehicles that I know that went across the border to Mexico.
06:36A lot of SUVs, bigger Suburbans and stuff like that, were used to either package and transport drugs or guns or money.
06:44Taking cars out of state was risky because I'm getting into territory where I don't know the roads,
06:51but it was something that I would do if the money was right.
06:55There were times that I was accompanied because if I had somebody who wanted 15 vehicles out of state,
07:03I'm going to need 14 other drivers, and I'm also going to need a ride back.
07:07The people that I would sell to on the streets were using them for crimes or just to get around.
07:19The bigger F-350s, Escalades, Excursions, Tahos, are more on demand because they're work vehicles.
07:27They can haul a bigger load, whether it be drugs or stolen merchandise, and there's so many of them made.
07:34So they're not easily spotted if it's stolen.
07:37They're all built the same.
07:39You can interchange the parts.
07:41They're fast vehicles. They're big vehicles, especially once you get into the F-350s, the Super Duties, the turbo diesels.
07:49A lot of times I took into account that the bigger the vehicle, the cops won't stop.
07:54The cops won't hit it.
07:56Smaller cars were not something I'd steal on a regular.
08:00I would stay away from vehicles that were chipped or vehicles that had OnStar for the simple fact that they can be traced,
08:09and I wasn't one to be into computer programs.
08:12To me, that was too much time, too much effort,
08:15and you have to commit one crime to commit a crime of auto theft for that vehicle.
08:20I've taken a few vehicles to chop shops to be disassembled and parts to be spread out,
08:32whether it be cosmetic or internal as far as motors and engines, tires, rims, things like that.
08:40A vehicle that goes to a chop shop can pretty much be completely, 100% disassembled, just like if it was in the factory.
08:48A chop shop visually is no different than a regular mechanic shop or the mechanic shop at a dealership.
08:56The first time I went to a chop shop, I had no idea that it was a chop shop.
09:01Most chop shops are legal businesses.
09:05It's easier to get away with by having a legit business than it is to have just a hole-in-the-wall shop.
09:12To ship out one kind of vehicle can take a chop shop anywhere from an hour to three hours,
09:19depending on the parts that they wanted and what they were able to do with the manpower.
09:25The person stealing the vehicle gets paid the least amount,
09:30because when you take time to part anything out, you get paid a lot more.
09:36If you're selling piece by piece, you're getting paid $100 here, $1,000 there, $2,000 here.
09:43The most valuable parts is the engine for one, rims, tires, suspension, surround sound systems.
09:52A new thing that people do is cloning vehicles.
09:57You have a vehicle that's 100% legit and another vehicle that's cloned to match the appearance,
10:04and you make, model, and they have VIN printers that you can duplicate that VIN,
10:12so now you have two vehicles that are actually one.
10:15Even if it's stolen, they won't know unless they really search for it.
10:24When I grew up playing Grand Theft Auto, to me it was like, wow, you can do anything and everything you want.
10:32So much adrenaline, running from cops, shooting at people.
10:36Grand Theft Auto was more of a violent experience.
10:41I tried to never have contact with owners or people.
10:46I never liked to steal cars with keys that were already inside of them or that were already running,
10:53not only because I didn't want to have that violence with somebody that was undeserving of it,
11:01but I also didn't want to be spotted and pointed out by police officers or told on.
11:07To me, the video game should have never been created.
11:10It does show a lot to kids as to what you can really do in real life.
11:15Gone in 60 Seconds was a neat movie,
11:20but it's not common for somebody to buy a vehicle that stands out that's already stolen.
11:27It's going to be recovered.
11:28I would stay away from vehicles that were more expensive.
11:31The more expensive vehicles carried the higher crime.
11:35If you got caught for it, longer prison sentence.
11:38I personally did have a small team, but I like to do it on my own.
11:44I like to be the all-star.
11:47I like to be the star of the movie.
11:49When you start putting out action movies like that, you also get people curious as to how it's done.
11:56So I hate to use the term, but it's going on everywhere.
12:00The Kia boys.
12:02Kias have been known to be very good, reliable vehicles.
12:06They're nice.
12:07But again, I think if I was to steal a Kia, what would I do with it?
12:12They're small. They may be kind of sporty, kind of fast.
12:16But personally, I couldn't do anything other than take the rims off of it.
12:20So when I think about this Kia boy trend, to me it's ridiculous.
12:25It's a bunch of people joyriding.
12:27They're not making money.
12:29All they're doing is causing damage and destroying lives.
12:38I grew up in a single home with my mother.
12:41Gangs became a part of my life when I met my dad.
12:46He lived in a pretty bad neighborhood, or a rough neighborhood, where gangs were everywhere.
12:53Maybe not so much gangs, but gangsters or thugs.
12:59And that's what I pulled myself to.
13:02Because they were older.
13:04Because I felt a sense of guidance.
13:07Once I graduated high school, I joined the military.
13:11December 3, 2007, I joined boot camp.
13:14It was amazing. I was like, wow, I finally did something with myself.
13:18But was it really my dreams to be a Marine?
13:21It never was.
13:23So I got out of the military, honorable discharge.
13:27I pursued music.
13:29I'd go around touring, show to show, state to state, city to city.
13:34I had this feeling of a climax, so to say, because there were fans that looked up to us, that idolized us.
13:42Then in 2014, I was shot three times in Las Vegas.
13:46When I got out of the tour bus, I went to get into a personal vehicle.
13:51And there was a drive-by that occurred.
13:54And they shot me three times.
13:56And again, I felt a sense of purpose.
14:00And then again, it was stripped from me.
14:03It was taken in one night.
14:06So I reverted back to that old way that I had from a kid.
14:10The power, the respect.
14:13So the neighborhood that I was in, everybody was close-knit.
14:16Everybody knew everybody.
14:18We knew the vehicles that were coming in and out.
14:20We knew the vehicles that were supposed to be there that weren't supposed to be there.
14:24So it was very secure for me and very easy for me to get in and out or get away when a cop is coming in.
14:31Denver is very known for drug abuse.
14:35Also homelessness.
14:37A lot of people nowadays are using vehicles to get high end, to supply a high.
14:42It's not money-induced.
14:44It's drug-induced.
14:46Homelessness is rough when it becomes winter.
14:50Car theft goes up when it's winter because people have nowhere to stay, nowhere to sleep.
14:56They're sleeping on the streets.
14:58So when you think about car theft in the winter or in Denver, you also have to think about survival.
15:05Because if you don't have shelter, if you don't have money, a means of transportation, you don't have anything.
15:12You might even die out there.
15:14And homelessness has gone up significantly in Denver, especially downtown Denver.
15:25In the particular instance that I pulled a gun on the cop, I was driving down the street and I noticed a vehicle following me.
15:33I made an illegal left-hand turn.
15:36I made my first right and I turned around right away.
15:39The first vehicle that came down that street was the vehicle that I seen telling me.
15:45So at that point I jumped out and I was like throwing my hands up.
15:48You know, what's going on? What's up?
15:50When I reached out and pulled my gun out, I realized that it was an unmarked police officer that was in a pickup truck.
16:00When he reached for his radio is when I knew that it was a cop.
16:04That's when I took off.
16:06The day that I was arrested, I had a friend in a stolen vehicle, the 2002 Dodge Ram Cummins diesel.
16:14Pretty fast truck.
16:16Had the truck probably three, four months.
16:19During that time, I was involved in a lot of high-speed chases.
16:23I was going northbound on a street in Denver called Sheridan.
16:28I started seeing two vehicles swerving in and out of lanes following me.
16:33So just to make it clear, I made a right and then I pulled down an alley, made a left.
16:39Looked over at my friend and they're like, what are you doing?
16:44I said, I'm being followed.
16:46You're tripping. You're just high or something.
16:49And I feel like, I'm like, you know what, maybe I am just tripping.
16:53So I turned around and I ended up going to a storage unit.
16:56As I'm sitting there waiting, I put my feet up in the door jamb, put my hands behind my head and lay my head back.
17:03I maybe fell asleep for like two minutes, two to five minutes.
17:07And then I woke up and I was completely surrounded.
17:10I was hit from the front and back by police officers.
17:13To me, it felt like an army.
17:15There was police officers everywhere.
17:17They had their guns drawn on me.
17:19They took me to the station.
17:20They asked me, you know, where'd you get the vehicle?
17:23I said, oh, I got it from this person. I borrowed it from that person.
17:26They knew it was BS and they knew that they were going to get a conviction off of me.
17:31From there, they took me to jail.
17:39I have felonies for aggravated motor vehicle theft.
17:43And I also have a felony for vehicular eluding, which is running from the police in a stolen vehicle.
17:50I was able to help the veterans unit begin being started in Jefferson County Jail.
17:59I feel being a veteran is what saved me from everything.
18:04It wasn't just ran by regular deputies.
18:07It was also ran by veteran deputies.
18:10No one will ever know the bond that a veteran has, even if they've never met.
18:15We did different programs.
18:17We did healthy relationships, different kind of counseling, better parenting, recovery, stuff like that.
18:27During that time, I set it up to where I met with the auto theft team.
18:33And I pretty much told them how I stole the vehicles, what vehicles I stole.
18:39It's kind of, I guess, in a sense, giving back a portion of what I've taken.
18:46Because ultimately, my main goal is to get the word out to the public that you can protect yourself and your belongings.
18:57But I can be here to help educate you in doing so.
19:01I got a 12 to 18 year deferred sentence as long as I was able to accomplish Veterans Treatment Court, which is intense supervised probation.
19:11It's for two years, different phases. It's four phases.
19:15If I was not able to complete that successfully, they would dismiss the suspension of that and then send me to DOC for the remaining time.
19:28During my time in Veteran Treatment Court, I was placed into Harbor Lights Rehab Facility.
19:34If I wasn't a veteran getting released from jail, I would have had to go back to a neighborhood.
19:42The VA is the one that I leaned on to pay for the rehab facility, versus other people were relying on insurances.
19:51I had to take different courses as far as toxic masculinity, something that I was very aware of that I had,
20:00being this big, bad, macho man, gangster from the streets, especially a man that has had no to little guidance in life.
20:10I cut ties pretty much with all my family members, so I had no support other than the people that I was around.
20:16With the VA, they gave me that.
20:19So if I wasn't a veteran, I'd probably be dead or in jail to this day.
20:29The things that make a car or vehicle more attractive to steal, for one, is security.
20:36If there's no anti-theft device as far as like a car alarm, if you have bags or personal belongings in plain sight, that's another reason to steal it.
20:46If you upgrade your vehicle with rims or sound systems and your car is flashy, it's reasons to steal that vehicle.
20:54My advice for drivers, for one, don't be complacent. Put personal belongings away. Don't carry unnecessary things with you in your vehicle.
21:06Number two, install car alarms, different devices like that.
21:11Anything that's remote or ran on Bluetooth can be tapped into and stolen.
21:19The only real way to prevent a car from being stolen is to break a circuit somewhere within the car, from the battery to the starter, battery to the ignition.
21:30I would always suggest breaking a passage between starter and battery.
21:38The only way to do that is to manually put a switch in that'll break that circuit.
21:44That switch has to be manually flipped for it to start.
21:48If a car thief gets in a car and the car don't start, they're not going to spend time trying to figure out what's wrong with it.
21:56Yes, they may make entry, but they won't drive off in your vehicle.
22:00I think about a vehicle as a starting point to other thefts.
22:06If I see that you have a garage door opener on your car, say it's in a parking garage, I steal the car.
22:13Most of the time people get so complacent they might open their mail inside their vehicle.
22:19Your address is on your mail.
22:21I'm going to take your vehicle with your garage door opener to your house.
22:27You're giving me full access to your house knowing I just took your car from an underground garage at a different location.
22:35A keyless car theft is based on plugging a computer program,
22:41pretty much where you would check your codes for your engine failure or things like that.
22:46Once you access the vehicle, then you can plug that device in and create a new key.
22:53People think that because you have a key fob that they're safe, but they're actually not.
22:59They're called relay thefts.
23:01What they're doing is using a repeat amplifier to capture the signal from the key fob to the car,
23:07so they're able to open the doors and start the vehicle.
23:11They're able to get it to wherever they need to go to then recreate and rechip a key chip for themselves.
23:19Catalytic converter theft is on the rise.
23:22Catalytic converters contain palladium and platinum,
23:26which is two high-precious metals that are highly sought after at this point in time.
23:32Vehicles that are sitting higher are more prone to be targeted because they're easily accessed with a higher clearance.
23:40The bigger the catalytic converter, the more expensive the catalytic converter becomes.
23:45Catalytic converters are not something that I was ever involved in for the fact that it was an easy $200,
23:52but I can get more for the whole vehicle than I can for a catalytic converter.
23:57I feel that auto theft has a big impact on the car market.
24:02For one, insurance rates are going up because of it.
24:07So again, it's a way to punish, in a sense, the vehicle owner.
24:13If KIAs are going up in auto theft, why are they selling these vehicles
24:19and then turning around and allowing car insurance places to up their prices on the person that's buying them?
24:32After the court process, the proceedings, things like that, I got married, had kids.
24:42I coach a 10U, 8U softball.
24:46I have a full-time job. I'm a foreman.
24:49I go to work, come home with my family.
24:53I don't worry about where I'm going to sleep or where my next meal is going to come from.
24:59So my life now is the American Dream life.
25:16For more information, visit www.fema.gov
25:46For more information, visit www.fema.gov