Deltona Man Charged In Washington State Auto Theft Ring

Deltona, FL – A month-long investigation of a 35-year-old Deltona man saw him arrested last Thursday (August 27).  Volusia Sheriff’s detectives say 35-year-old Arthur Wilcher is charged in a luxury car theft scheme that had ties to Washington state. VSO was made aware of Wilcher by Washington state police who discovered that a suspect in a series of rental car thefts in their state had connections to Wilcher. Two tag numbers believed to be attached to the stolen vehicles were forwarded to VSO. When the tag numbers were run through the License Plate Reader system, it showed they were both regularly driving around Volusia County. Detectives started conducting surveillance on Wilcher’s house and found a stolen 2017 BMW 750 sedan, a 2018 Jaguar F-Pace SUV, and a 2017 Mercedes S-class coupe, each with Washington tags and fake vehicle identification numbers on stickers covering the true VINs on the dashboards, doors and engine blocks. A traffic stop conducted Thursday morning was assisted by a special agent with the National Insurance Crime Bureau. The investigation led to the discovery of all the fake VIN stickers covering the true VINs, which all revealed each vehicle was reported stolen. The BMW and Mercedes were reported stolen out of Georgia, and the Jaguar was reported stolen out of Miami Gardens. Detectives also discovered $4,000 cash in a Louis Vuitton purse inside the Jaguar and about $46,000 cash in a black bag in the trunk of the BMW. Wilcher is charged with three counts of grand theft of a motor vehicle, three counts of possession of a vehicle with altered VIN, operating a chop shop, and three counts of possession of schedule III substances recovered at the house. Wilcher posted $25,000 bail and was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail on Friday.