Suspected chop shop raided on Detroit's west side after months-long investigation

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit police raided a suspected chop shop on the city's west side Wednesday and arrested the owner.

DPD's Commercial Auto Theft Task Force shut down Greenlight Auto Parts in the 9200 block of Freeland.

Investigators say the business was removing parts from stolen vehicles and installing them in other cars, selling them to customers who had no idea where the parts came from.

"These were newer-model cars that they were stealing part off of, such as doors, the front fenders, we have transmissions, engines. And they would take these parts and put them on other cars and innocent purchases would never know they were riding around with stolen cars," said DPD Sgt. Shawn Dunning. 

DPD is sending a message to other crooks - they won't get away with duping innocent customers.

"We're not going to allow it. We're not going to have people come down to our city and steal our cars and drive our insurance rates up while operating these illegal businesses," Dunning said.

The raid was the result of a four-month-long investigation.