- 12 men in Massachusetts have been charged in connection with the theft of high-end cars worth more than $2.6 million.
- Brockton PD and 37 other local and federal agencies joined forces for the year-long Operation Hellcat investigation.
- The gang used programming devices to create new keys for cars they would then steal from dealerships.
Operation Hellcat sounds like the kind of 1950s war movie Quentin Tarantino might have parodied in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but that’s the name of an investigation that has resulted in 12 Massachusetts men being charged in connection with a car theft epidemic.
The year-long program was a joint operation involving 38 local and federal enforcement agencies including the Enterprise and Major Crimes Division (EMCD), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and the Brockton Police Department (BPD) looking into at least 63 vehicle thefts from dealers totaling more than $2.6 million.
Investigators allege that the 12 men worked in groups of between two and 10 to break into dealerships in the early hours of the morning. Once inside, they used Autel programming devices to turn blank keys into fully functioning versions they could then use to steal cars that included, as the name of the operation suggests, Hellcat-powered Dodges…