News of the seminar soon spread to other law enforcement agencies who requested the opportunity to attend. The numbers of requests for attendance soon became too large for one agency to accommodate. Other law enforcement agencies agreed to host the annual seminars. From this group, the Midwest Auto Theft Association was organized. Shortly thereafter, a petition to the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators gave birth to the North Central Regional Chapter.

The excellence in training first offered by Robert Sattler provides the basis for the North Central Regional Chapter seminars and prompted the creation of this award to memorialize the dedication and commitment of Robert Sattler.

Nominees for this award must have performed an investigation in a superior manner and the results must have had a significant impact on auto theft and/or related crimes. Nominees may be from law enforcement, the insurance industry, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, vehicle manufacturers or others who have the common interests of the North Central Regional Chapter as their guiding principals and must be a member(s) in the Chapter. Nominees may be an individual or a unit.

The Robert Sattler Award has only been presented six times since its creation in 1998, and never before to a group of recipients.  This year it was awarded to the Western Wayne Auto Theft Unit and the Macomb County Auto Theft Squad from the state of Michigan.

The Western Wayne Auto theft Unit includes officers from Michigan State Police, Livonia Police Department, Detroit Police Department, Huron Township Police Department and the Wayne County Sheriff. Recently this multi-agency taskforce concluded an investigation that spanned 16 months and culminated in the arrest and charging of eight suspects in a case involving 119 victims. The suspects have been charged with 569 felony charges ranging from operating a criminal enterprise, to receiving and concealing stolen property, operating a chop shop, felony firearms possession, and others.  The estimated cost of this scam was over one million dollars.
The case was originally referred to the Western Wayne Auto Theft Unit by the Macomb County Auto Theft Squad.

The scheme used by the perpetrators involved an organized key cutting ring that was discovered by the Macomb Auto Theft Squad and General Motors investigator Henry Jackson. Western Wayne was alerted when it was learned that the suspects were stealing cars in various Wayne County jurisdictions. Two tipsters provided information that led to a service manager at a Cadillac dealership in Clinton Township who was releasing confidential key code information to a locksmith. A key audit was performed which revealed that two individuals provided key code information to the same locksmith for over 100 vehicles.  Thirty-six of those vehicles were found to have been reported stolen.

Officers were able to locate the locksmith who admitted to cutting the keys and that he was paid $40-$80 per key by a group of men who would supply the VIN information from targeted vehicles. Utilizing tip information, the Western Wayne taskforce assigned surveillance on several homes in Detroit which led to the arrest of the scheme ringleaders and the recovery of  twenty-five vehicles, a stack of VIN plates, rosette rivets, Federal labels, vehicle titles, two four-wheelers, four computers, two hand guns, a shotgun and tools.

Congratulations go out to all officers of both taskforces who brought this investigation to a very successful conclusion. Thanks also to the Michigan Auto Theft Prevention Authority which provides much of the operational funding for these units and to the Office of the Wayne County Prosecutor for giving this case the attention it deserves. Final acknowledgments go to the press office of the Wayne County Prosecutor and Michigan’s HEAT (Help Eliminate Auto Theft) campaign for much of the information included in this article.

Past recipients of the Bob Sattler award are:

Requests for consideration should be accompanied by supporting documentation and submitted no later than March 1 preceding the North Central Regional Chapter seminar.
Correspondence shall be directed to:

Chris Cole, Chairman, Robert Sattler Award
7077 N. Coloma Road
Coloma, Mi. 49308