{"id":296558,"date":"2026-09-30T01:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T01:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/296558\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T01:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T01:32:11","slug":"police-uncover-alleged-chop-shop-with-stolen-hondas-in-north-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/296558\/","title":{"rendered":"Police uncover alleged chop shop with stolen Hondas in North Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Police say they uncovered an alleged chop shop in North Philadelphia on Tuesday containing seven stolen Hondas that had been stripped down for parts.<\/p>\n

Two people have been arrested, and authorities believe this may be part of a larger vehicle theft operation.<\/p>\n

Police found the vehicles inside a garage near North 9th and West Ontario streets. The cars had been dismantled to the point that identifying them is difficult, according to investigators.<\/p>\n

“This is 100% chop shop,” said Capt. Robert McKeever of the Philadelphia Police Department.<\/p>\n

Investigators pointed to tools found at the site as evidence of the operation.<\/p>\n

“These are the big hacksaws,” McKeever said.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO | Thieves target Honda SUVs, leaving them stripped inside Philly parks<\/a>
<\/p>\n

Thieves target Honda SUVs, leaving them stripped inside Philly parks<\/p>\n

Police said one of the recovered vehicles had been stolen only days earlier.<\/p>\n

“This car right here, this was stolen three days ago. And look what’s left,” McKeever said, pointing to the skeletal frame of what was once a vehicle.<\/p>\n

All seven vehicles recovered at the garage were Hondas. Investigators have previously identified Hondas as frequent targets for theft because of their easily interchangeable parts.<\/p>\n

The condition of the vehicles highlights how quickly thieves can dismantle a stolen car, police said.<\/p>\n

“They can probably strip a car completely within 45 minutes,” McKeever said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE | Philadelphia police bust 2 car theft rings targeting Hondas | Exclusive<\/a><\/p>\n

Philly police bust 2 car theft rings targeting Hondas | Exclusive<\/p>\n

Authorities served three warrants in connection with the investigation and made two arrests.<\/p>\n

McKeever said investigators believe the operation may be connected to a larger stolen car ring and could be tied to a ring police dismantled in April.<\/a><\/p>\n

“We feel confident that we got the two main guys and the other people are just gonna be part of the crew,” McKeever said.<\/p>\n

Investigators are using serial numbers and airbags to help identify the stolen vehicles. Police are also working to determine where the stolen parts were being distributed.<\/p>\n

“We believe a lot of them are being shipped over to the Dominican Republic,” McKeever said.<\/p>\n

Other parts may end up in vehicles sold online, investigators said.<\/p>\n

“Some people will buy a car on Facebook Marketplace and the car is welded together, and you don’t want to buy a car that’s welded together by a person who has no idea what they’re doing,” McKeever said.<\/p>\n

Police said additional arrests may follow as the investigation continues.<\/p>\n

“There’s still gonna be more arrests made. We’ve got to do more investigation on it,” McKeever said.<\/p>\n

The garage where the vehicles were found is zoned for a legitimate mechanic shop, according to police. However, investigators believe the owner has been leasing the space to different occupants.<\/p>\n

Authorities said all parts recovered from the garage will be confiscated as investigators work to identify the stolen vehicles. It’s a process police expect to be challenging given the extent to which the cars were dismantled.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Police say they uncovered an alleged chop shop in North Philadelphia on Tuesday containing seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122609,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-296558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-122609","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}