"I didn't start stealing cars until I started using meth," said Drew, a patient at the New Hope Recovery Center in Modesto. "I stole cars to pay for my habit."

Drew, 25, did not want to give his last name. He said he has been convicted four times for vehicle theft and is on parole with the condition that he go through treatment at the center.

He seems an unlikely meth user. Drew played sports at Downey High School. After he graduated, he served in the Army at Fort Drum, N.Y., with the 10th Mountain Division.

He said he was an addict about a month after he started using it. Methamphetamine heightened his senses and made him feel as if he could accomplish anything. He would stay awake for 36 hours straight.

It also started to make him feel paranoid. "You constantly look out the windows and you see things," Drew said. "But it was exciting. It was fun."

Soon he was homeless and without money. A friend showed Drew how to steal a car and told him that if he brought in specific parts, he would be paid in methamphetamine.

Some cars were parted out. Others were used as a home and transportation. "I would sleep in a car for a week before I moved on," Drew said. "The stereos would get me $20 to $40 so I could buy more drugs."

He was arrested for another theft in May 2003, the day before he was to check in to jail. He was sentenced to one year in jail. His third arrest was in August 2004. That brought a 180-day sentence, but he did 65.

That's when he admitted he had a drug problem. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was sent to a state-run rehabilitation center. He was paroled in January on the condition that he continue his treatment at the New Hope Center.

"We've had police officers, judges, probation officers, county workers, lawyers, you name it," Garnica said. "We see people from age 18 to age 70 who are addicted."

But because the drug makes them paranoid, meth users often want to get away from a stolen car as quick as possible, Garnica said, out of fear someone may have seen something.

That's probably why most stolen cars only have stereos taken out of them, said Art Amirkhas, co-owner of City Tow and the Federal Collision Center, an automobile body shop. He estimates that 10 percent to 20 percent of all cars towed by his company are stolen cars that had been found.

City Tow is one of 17 tow agencies that the California Highway Patrol, Modesto police and Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department use. Amirkhas tows about 70 a month.

Almost all of the stolen cars he sees have damaged locks, ignition switches, trunks and dashboards. Sometimes the wheels are missing, but usually the car is still drivable.

"We find a lot of glass smoking pipes and pieces of tin foil with burn marks on them," Amirkhas said. "The police said they smoke the meth off the foil."

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