Have you seen this story??Remember the 7 that got killed??

By DARIN FENGER, The Sun August 22, 2006



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YUMA (AP) - About a dozen vehicles used to smuggle humans sit in a quiet and dusty row, at first glance blending in with the hundreds of cars and trucks with more innocent pasts that fill the scrap yard of Dick's 25-Hour Towing.
A visitor to the yard just walking by could easily never notice that these automobiles are different.
For example, the rear seats are gone and unnecessary interior side panels have been crudely ripped out.

All of this done with two goals in mind: To avoid detection and maximize the ability to haul more of their living, human goods.

"Basically it's all the same. There's really nothing to it," said Mark Schlamann, a tow truck driver for Rautenberg. "They pretty much just take the seats out and pack them in."

Dick Rautenberg, owner of Dick's 25-Hour Towing, is one of the few Yuma residents who sees firsthand what's left behind when smugglers fail to make good on their promise to deliver the chance for new lives.

"Imagine stacking 20-some railroad ties into a vehicle," he said.

Comparing people to cargo becomes almost impossible to avoid when describing how vehicles are packed with people in the business of smuggling humans across the U.S.-Mexico border.

"People are just laying on top of each other," Rautenberg said. "We've seen a pickup and camper shell with 21 guys piled in the back. It's just really terrible."

The smuggling vehicles seen at Dick's are almost always the products of theft - most often from San Diego - with the most common license plates being from California and Nevada, according to Rautenberg. After a set period of time has passed, the towing company files with the state to legally own the vehicles, most often using them for salvage. Only rarely do lending institutions come calling, Rautenberg said, and even less often does he hear from the original owners.

The vehicles that come to Rautenberg's scrap yard, and others around Yuma, are the ones used in smuggling cases that were damaged before or during their apprehension by the U.S. Border Patrol.

But the most recent smuggling vehicle towed by Dick's was nowhere to be seen.

That vehicle was the white Suburban involved in the deadly accident that claimed 10 lives and injured 11 more people Aug. 7. In cases like that, where a criminal investigation promises to be sizable, the automobiles are instead sent to be impounded by the Yuma County Sheriff's Office.

Schlamann said he's seen many dented and beat-up vehicles in his 13 years with Dick's. But he said the Suburban that came to a deadly halt 30 miles outside of Yuma was the worst.

"There's no comparison," Schlamann said. "Normally, they don't roll over like that. You don't hardly ever see it like that."

Schlamann was grateful not to have all the facts - or haunting visuals - on that day when he was called to the gruesome accident scene.

Richard Hays, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma sector, stressed that smugglers simply don't care at all about the safety of the people who have paid them for a trip across the border.

Hays pointed out that no special consideration is given to pregnant women, children or elderly people.

Calls to pick up vehicles left behind by arrested smugglers are shared by towing companies throughout Yuma. Dick's is certainly one of the companies that's been at it the longest.

But what's more interesting is just how often the phone at Dick's has been ringing lately.

"We haven't had many here this last two months or so. There's maybe been five of six," Schlamann said. "Before that we were getting two or three a week."

Both Schlamann and Rautenberg credited the government's recent increases in border security

Before it's all over, legal Americans will be
a) blamed or
b) sued

because illegals are all so innocent.

The coyotes should serve a mandatory life in prison.

We need to stop all Federal Aid...and there are billions of dollars sent out each year...to Mexico for encouraging their poor and their criminals to illegally enter our nation.

Too long, that would take me some time to go through..

Too bad they weren't all killed!

BLAH-BLAH-BLAH.........
2 LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw the story - I think we need stronger and inforce able immigration laws that work!@

Thank you for sharing, I was happy with the ending part when it said that credit is due to the government for the smaller numbers of vehicles that have been stolen and then used to smuggle illegals.

Thanks for this. Smuggling is morally wrong and there is no excuse for it better life or not it's wrong.

OMG, here you go again with your way too long copying & pasting, is this the only thing you know how to do?? Anyways, too long for me to care!

Thank you, seals.Without you we would have no other way of getting the news.

Why don't you try emailing us all...do you honestly think we are going to sit here and read you old news. Write to us and we will tell you how we feel about your old news.