Cars stolen in the US are being smuggled into Mexico, making it nearly impossible to recover

Tijuana, Mexico – After a month away, Catherine Vermillion returned home to her San Diego apartment and an empty parking lot.

“I looked up and realized my car was gone,” Vermillion told CBS News. “I remembered I had an AirTag in my car, so I checked my phone, and the AirTag showed my car was in Tijuana, Mexico.”

When he saw where the AirTag appeared, he said he was “shocked and in disbelief.”

Disbelief turned to frustration after the local police said they couldn’t help.

“They just said because it’s over the border they can’t go even though I showed them it was only 45 minutes away,” Vermillion said.

It’s a frustration shared by the California Highway Patrol.

“As far as country borders go, we can’t cross that line,” CHP Lt. David Navarro said.

Navarro warned that organized theft rings are going after high-end SUVs, pickups and performance cars, stealing them in the U.S., then Smuggling into Mexico. He said it is profitable, difficult to track and often impossible to recover these cars after crossing the border.

Over the past four years, CHP data show that the amount stolen vehicles Crossing the border from California, Arizona and Texas jumped 79%.

“If a vehicle is stolen in the middle of the night, and the victim doesn’t wake up until 7 in the morning, if it’s stolen at 2, you have approximately five hours to transport that vehicle,” said Navarro. “If that vehicle is not notified in the system, and if it passes through that camera, no, no warning will be given at all.”

That’s what happened to Vermillion’s Jeep. The difference was that he knew exactly where it ended: 46 kilometers from the Tijuana border.

Enter Phil Mohr, a repo man who has spent the last 20 years as a stolen car bounty hunter in Mexico.

Mohr said as much stolen cars It ends near the Tijuana airport, a few hundred meters away US-Mexico border.

“This is an organized drop-off point,” Mohr said.

Organized in many cases postersfederal agents told CBS News that the cars are being used to smuggle drugs and weapons into Mexico.

Mohr worked with local law enforcement in Mexico to recover Vermillion’s car and return it to San Diego.

“It feels like a win,” Mohr said. “It feels like you’ve done good, you’ve righted a wrong in the world.”

A resident of Vermillion snapped a photo to capture the moment Mohr returned the car.

“I’ve got my hands up, that’s it,” Vermillion said. “It was like the best day ever.”

For Vermillion, it was the best day ever, but for most, that day never comes.