The December 2007 Auto-Theft.info's Hero of the Month award goes to Metro Las Vegas Police Lieutenant Robert Duvall and his investigative team. What started off as an area auto theft sting operation ended in Lt. Duvall and his team discovering the motherload of auto theft rings.

"We identified some people. We kept on them, we kept watching, we kept seeing what they were doing. It appeared at first it was just a stolen car ring where they were stealing cars just off of car lots then it appeared that they were escalating into carjackings,"

Police believe they have captured the leaders of a very organized and very brazen major auto theft ring that's been operating in Las Vegas. The arrest of the three leaders and about a dozen others is the kind of case that comes around once in a "blue moon"

Lt. Duvall said, "It's kind of the reason most cops get into police work and it was very fun, very exciting to do." "We identified some people. We kept on them, we kept watching, we kept seeing what they were doing."

Over the last couple of months, Lt. Duvall and his team have received help from police departments in Dallas, Phoenix and Anaheim on how to handle auto theft here in Las Vegas. Lt. Duvall says this latest bust is an example of how well that research is working