PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Police are investigating after numerous vehicles were seen being stripped off the side of a busy intersection in north Portland.
Over the past couple of days, KOIN 6 News has captured activity of tow trucks on scene loaded up with car parts, cars on their sides getting stripped and trailers and truck beds being loaded with car parts.
In the busy transit corridor along North Going Street, concerned citizens say they’ve watched several cars getting stripped in broad daylight.
“At the time there was just a couple of cars being taken apart,” Nick Haas said.
Haas has been watching what’s been going on here for weeks, as a mechanic himself, he describes the behavior as professional.
“What I’m seeing here is more professional, this is automotive dismantling that you see at a wrecking yard,” Haas said.
According to the city’s website, Portlanders have reported this exact location at North Going and Greely dozens of times in the last twelve weeks.
“They’re stripping the entire drive train, engine, wiring, anything of value out of it. They’re pretty much leaving the bulk and shell to be dealt with by the city,” Haas said.
On Friday, the city told KOIN 6 their crews have assessed the area and plan to clean up the stripped cars and debris at that site next week. Driving by on the same day, it looks like a graveyard of cars with more random vehicles spread out on a berm up the road.
Portland police said officers are investigating possible illegal activity in the area.
Police have done enforcement at several car stripping operations over the past several months and said they are addressing them as resources allow.
KOIN 6 reporter Elise Haas is of no relation to Nick Haas.