All that's needed to explain why in the 1990s auto theft is such a booming criminal business.
It doesn't take a brain search.
It's not much more difficult than it was 20 years ago when they had it.
One of the country's leading law enforcement experts on stolen cars, Lieutenant Jack Deremer
of the Dade County Florida Sheriff's Department, says it's far easier than it has to be or
should be to steal a car.
People think that because they've got little smooth door locks and a fancy looking switch
in the steering column that their car is secure.
It's more show than effectiveness a lot of times.
People in Detroit must know that.
I don't see how they could not know that.
In fact, we found that car makers, both American and foreign, are well aware of just how easily
their cars have been stolen, but that what steps they've taken have done little to stop
what has become a well organized, multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise.
A big part of it, chop shops.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of stolen cars are chopped up for their parts in hidden
away places like this one discovered by police in New York.
Most of the cars that are stolen, 50 percent are used for parts.
And beyond that, as this police surveillance tape shows, a growing number of luxury cars
are being stolen for buyers overseas.
Stolen to order.
The order is placed somewhere in South America, Central America, Africa, you name it.
They're brought down here in car carriers, just like new cars driving down I-95 from
New York, where they go to the Port of Miami, where they're exported out of the country,
and away it goes.
Put my jeans right over my pajamas, rushed downstairs, the kids were still asleep, and
go look to see if my car was still there.
When thieves stole Charles Schumer's car from in front of his house, he started to ask some
tough questions about why it's so easy to steal a car, and he was just the person to
do it.
Schumer is Congressman Schumer of New York.
Why is it so easy still to push in the ignition and start a car?
Why are the locks on the doors so easy to puncture?
The locks on the trunks, everything.
In 1992, Schumer introduced an anti-theft law backed by the FBI that would help trace
stolen cars by requiring ID numbers on key parts in all vehicles at a cost of $6 a car.
Make this not profitable anymore.
But Schumer says the bill ran into heavy opposition from the auto industry as not worth the money,
and in the end it was watered down to cover fewer parts on fewer vehicles and phased in
through the year 2000.
At first I thought, you know, when they put up objection after objection to my legislation,
I first thought, well, maybe they have valid concerns.
And then I finally began to get it, and it really bothered me that they, my judgment,
knew how to make things better, but didn't want to.
I disagree with you.
I mean, we're not in the business to let people steal our cars so we can sell more.
That's not good for our customers, and we're not about to do that.
He's a Congressman.
You can say anything you want.
I actually had to say an equipment.
One motorist point man on issues of car theft and security is Jay Menotas, who says the
reason GM and others opposed Congressman Schumer's bill was that it was not the best way to stop
thefts.
Menotas says money is better spent on steps like GM's electronic passkey system.
Unless they have the right key for that car, no fuel, no ignition on most cars.
But as good as it is, it's still not in all GM vehicles, mostly, Menotas says, as a matter
of economics.
Where you can cost justify it, we put passkey in.
Where you can cost justify it.
Where it was good for the customer, the customer wanted it.
Isn't it good for every single customer, regardless of which car he drives?
If they want to pay for it.
Give them the option.
Sell one car for $15,000 and sell another car for $15,025 that you can't punch in the
ignition and ride away with your car.
Congressman Schumer and law enforcement authorities point to GM's long time use of one particular
steering column and ignition system.
Which allows you to brake.
That's notorious for the ease with which thieves can break into it and start a car.
The means to defeat it with a screwdriver have been around on the street for a good
15 years now.
But that steering column is almost an invitation, you're saying.
It's the next best thing to leave in the keys, maybe.
You had to know that any 15 year old could get into that car and start it and drive it
away.
We found that out when those cars started behind theft.
When did you find that out?
That was back in the early 80s.
GM began phasing out the easily defeated column in 1987, but a version of it is still being
used in the production of some vehicles that GM says have low theft rates.
Which ones are they?
I don't really want to say.
I don't want to tell the world which ones they are.
And there are millions of cars still on the road with that column, which GM now admits
makes cars easy to steal.
I mean, I'm not going to run and hide because we had a problem.
That's what everyone would expect you to do.
But to publicly sit here and admit there was a problem is a change in the public position
of GM.
Well, how am I going to hide?
It wasn't easier to steal our cars than anybody else's.
The fact was, it was pretty easy.
Oh yeah, I mean, I don't discredit that.
You can hold down the button one for a couple seconds to get to panic on the alarm.
And the shortcomings of the automaker in providing real protection from theft are one reason
why millions of dollars are now being spent by American car owners on all kinds of alarm
systems and tracking devices and anti-theft measures.
The club is the best auto theft deterrent I've seen and I recommend you use it.
Perhaps the most popular, the club, more than 10 million have been sold.
According to its commercials, tough to defeat and recommended by a national police group.
Get the club.
I think in many ways the club was the right product at the right time.
Thomas McCartney is the public relations director for the Pennsylvania company that makes the
club.
We think better than nine times out of 10, the club is going to protect your car.
But that's not what we heard from auto thieves and auto mechanics, including New Jersey repair
shop owner Glenn Kramer, who says he sees cars all the time that have been stolen with
the club still on them.
It looks as strong as it could be.
It looks that way.
Kramer, who is developing his own electronic anti-theft device, showed us in an admittedly
controlled setting what he says thieves all over the country are doing with the club every
day.
I'm going to cut it right off the wheel.
Oh, it's like that.
Just like that.
That was 11 seconds.
You showed us how.
Are you teaching the thieves something they don't know?
No, no, absolutely not.
I wouldn't do that.
They already know this?
Oh, yeah.
That was 11 seconds.
All right.
What kind of deterrent is that?
Well, I think it's a deterrent because most thieves, joy riders, would have to carry an
extra tool.
Would you call that tough to defeat?
In that particular situation, no.
We think nine times out of ten that a thief will go by the car and look for another use
of your target.
But not this twice convicted car thief, who is now cooperating with the police.
Now, if there are two cars, one has the club and one doesn't have the club, do you go for
the one that doesn't have the club?
Is it at least a deterrent in that sense?
Both cars the same?
Take both cars.
Take both cars.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a good one right there.
Without a tour of an American parking lot, we were told that with the exception of certain
cars, including the Lexus, Mercedes, and GM's Corvette, most car owners are sitting ducks
regardless of who makes the car.
As for his own car, this former thief has installed a hidden kill switch.
The best thing to do is put a well-hidden switch and that's the best way to go.
A switch that cuts off the fuel.
That's the fuel to the car and that way the car will not start.
And there's one place where that standard equipment on every new car sold, in Germany.
Here, insurance companies require some kind of automatic kill switch.
Some cars called an immobilizer, even on cars shipped by GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
And when you hear that they can do it in Germany, the question that jumps out is, why don't
you do it in America, fellas?
GM has its passkey and Ford and Chrysler say they will introduce such devices soon.
But the fact is, as America's auto theft squads on the prowl for stolen cars know all too
well, it's tough to stay ahead of the beast.
And as it was on this day in Florida, with police using a new electronic tracking device,
it's often a race against time before the chop shop starts cutting or the ship sails.
In this case, success just an hour before the ship was to go to Ecuador.
We have a Toyota 4Runner and a Dodge truck, both stolen.
And hidden in a second container, two more stolen cars, including a $50,000 Toyota Land
Cruiser.
Four vehicles that did not get away in a year in which 1,400,000 are likely to be stolen.
And that brings us back to our Chevrolet Caprice.
Right now we're getting ready to turn our studio into a chop shop.
In just the next few minutes, the car is going to be prepped, and then later in the broadcast,
you will see how fast professionals can take your car apart.
We'll be right back.
Next, teenage girls across the country are choosing to have and keep their babies.
Some call it a trend, others a disaster.
I'm sick of it.
I'm tired of the disappointment.
I'm tired of the poverty that these kids are placing themselves in.
The questions and the controversy of unwed motherhood.
And later, the man behind this alien, the Terminator, and that wild ride in Florida,
director James Cameron, when day one continues.
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Get ready for this.
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Clark Kent, Superman.
Will her kryptonite kiss destroy the man of steel?
Keep your lips off Superman.
An all new Lois and Clark.
Sudden.
Our engines are dead.
That plane's coming down.
Based on the true story of flight 174.
No, no.
William Devane and NYPD Blues Nick Lister Turow.
My kale word going down.
Falling from the sky, Monday on ABC.
Teen pregnancy.
Do you remember the song a few years back Madonna recorded it, the song Papa Don't Preach
went on to say.
He said I've made up my mind.
I'm keeping my baby.
Well, it's an unnerving anthem for the trend that seems to be saying that this country
really has changed.
We decided to dig a little deeper tonight to try to find out what is driving this desire
by so many teenagers to have and keep their babies.
It's a choice on their part.
And if you think it's still just a problem of the inner city, we have news for you.
John Hockenberry found a place in middle America where a third of all babies are now being born
to unwed mothers and where just last year one in seven was born to a teenager.
Sioux City, Iowa, a disturbing chapter of American history is being written in this
heartland community and thousands like it.
A history quietly being written by teenage girls.
My name is Mindy.
I'm 17 years old.
My son's name is Taden and he's eight months old.
My name is Missy and I had a son and he's two months old and his name is Tyler.
My name is Jordan Dahl.
I'm a mother of two.
I'm a mother of two.
I'm a mother of two.
I'm a mother of two.
I'm a mother of two.
I'm a mother of two.
I'm a mother of two.
I've got $10 and I've had him for 16 months and I've got him as a ticket.
Hey, are you getting nervous?
What is remarkable about these girls is not that they are sexually active.
It isn't even that they became pregnant.
These girls have decided while still in high school to start families on their own.
So today when parents come to North High School they might also be the students and the toddlers
at the Friday Night Football game might be watching their fathers out on the field.
So Friday Night Football game, home team won, right?
Yeah, home team.
And there they go off the field.
Do you think there are any fathers among them?
I think there are a lot.
There's a lot of seniors who are fathers.
A lot of sophomores are fathers.
I know a couple freshmen who are.
They didn't train me for this when I went to graduate school to become a counselor.
Carolyn Smith has been the guidance counselor at North High for 17 years.
Today she also runs the school's support group for teen mothers.
What did you use to spend your money on before you were pregnant?
What did you use to spend your money on?
Clothes, food.
What did you spend your money on now?
Papers, shoes, shoes, clothes, doctors.
Every single high school in Sioux City has a support group like this one.
Part of my goal here in working with these women is preventing that second baby.
Preventing that second baby.
Preventing the second baby.
You're keeping me in the bathtub.
Come on.
That's harder than you might think when teenage mothers often say having their first baby
was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to them.
Tayden means everything to Mindy.
He's beautiful.
He's a beautiful baby.
I love him.
I love him more than I love myself.
Tyler is now the center of Misty's world.
I want the baby to love me.
It will be there for me and I can tell her things and I can trust it.
Until Jake came along, Jodie says her life was going nowhere.
I love Jake to death and I never give him up for the world because he's mine.
He's one thing I have in my own.
They may have their moms, but kids like these growing up in single teen households have
little else in their corner.
Where are you going, honey?
It's a generation more likely to live among poverty and crime with social consequences
for an entire nation.
We're here for a delinquency review.
Thank you, Your Honor.
Dewey Sloan sees those consequences.
He prosecutes juvenile delinquents in Sioux City.
I see those adorable babies when that young 14 or 15-year-old mother turns 24 or 25.
Then they're not so cuddly anymore.
Then they're abused by the boyfriends or they're abused by the fathers or they're abused by
the mothers themselves out of frustration because of the dreams that they have not realized.
Do you see that?
Oh, absolutely.
Sloan believes extreme measures are called for.
He's convinced that parenting for teenagers, unless they show they can handle it, should
be illegal.
A 14 or 15-year-old can't drive a car.
A 14 or 15-year-old can't consume alcohol.
A 14 or 15-year-old can't get married.
A 14 or 15-year-old cannot get married in the state of Iowa, even with parental permission.
So you pass a law saying you have to pass a test to be a parent and be a certain age
to be a parent.
Otherwise, what?
Otherwise, your child, your rights to that child will be terminated.
Your child would be taken away.
That's correct.
I was very immature before I got pregnant.
I was very immature.
I was a child.
I was, I am probably still immature, a little bit immature now because I'm still kind of
killing myself.
How old are you?
I'm 16.
You're a child.
Yeah.
It's a lot of early late nights, a lot of money, time, effort.
It's not just like a doll.
It's not like having a doll.
Teenage parenting has never been illegal, but for most of this century, it was a scandal.
This was called the home for unfortunate girls on Court Street at the edge of town.
A pregnant girl would live here until giving birth.
She would then leave.
Her baby would stay.
Most of them did what their parents or their families or their communities would expect
that they do, and that would be not the parent for a child.
Lois Walsh is the maternity director here in the same building, but with a different
mission.
Today, this center is a very public part of the community.
There are almost no adoptions.
The priority is health care for new young mothers-to-be.
Did you think about maybe not keeping your baby?
Never.
No, I knew I was going to keep him.
I never considered giving him up because he's mine.
I couldn't give him to someone else.
The teenage pregnancy and motherhood were a scandal a generation ago.
Today, it's abortion that's out of the question for these girls.
If they had even considered it, the nearest clinic is three and a half hours away.
Intentionally or not, communities throughout the United States have created conditions
where unmarried teenage girls think it's best to keep their babies.
So they do.
Has society decided that teenage parenting is okay?
It certainly looks that way, doesn't it?
Is that better than the way it was?
Certainly they feel free to make their choices today.
Whether it's better, I think the jury's out on that.
We've had a tripling of the underclass in America since 1970.
Part of that underclass growth is adolescent childbearing.
Washington Post reporter Leon Dash says Sioux City may be at the beginning of a decline
he first wrote about a decade ago in Washington, D.C.
In 1985, Dash documented an explosion of teenage motherhood on these troubled streets.
Generational welfare dependence, marginal educational achievement, single parent, head of household.
People who study it long term see the consequences.
They're all connected to the growth of the underclass in the United States.
And in Sioux City, one could expect similar devastation.
I imagine so.
I imagine so.
I don't think they can escape it.
The odds are they won't.
All the girls we spoke to in Sioux City are on some form of public assistance, mostly
for health and daycare.
And nationwide, it's the youngest recipients of public assistance who stay dependent the
longest.
What would you say to the girls in Sioux City, Iowa who are just starting out on something
that you observed a decade ago?
That's a dead end.
But I wouldn't be able to convince them of that.
Did you plan to get pregnant?
Yeah, basically.
The idea of becoming a teenage mother is something Mindy inherited from her own mother.
My grandmother was pregnant at an early age, my mom, me.
What was your mom and dad's reaction to you getting pregnant?
Actually, my mom was happy because my mom is that type of person.
Teenage mothers come from other teen mothers, but there's one very important difference
for this new generation.
I'm not thinking about marriage.
I've already thought about that once and that was too scary of a thought.
Would you have wanted to get married?
No.
That's even more scary maybe than having a baby?
Yeah.
I don't think it's a good enough reason.
A girl had to get married a generation ago if she wanted to keep her baby.
But these girls don't want to relive their parents' troubled marriages.
Almost every girl we spoke to was the product of a teen family.
If you get married, there's a chance that you're going to have to walk away from it.
More than one man at a time.
That's sort of a terrible thing to say about the women that you're going to school with.
Yeah, it is, but most of it's true.
So most of the women you go to school with sleep around?
Oh yeah.
Do you guys sleep around?
No.
No.
No.
How do you know someone your age who's a dad?
Yeah.
I've got a lot of friends that have kids.
What do they say to you?
Because you seem to have stuck around.
They keep telling me I'm an idiot, but I don't listen to them.
How many of your fathers of these babies are still involved in your lives?
How many of you?
Tell them to fill me a fee.
Three, less than half maybe.
Here's Tatum's dad and I at Christmas.
His name's Brian.
He doesn't help me out whatsoever with any kind of money, support, no phone calls, say
how you doing, how's the baby, anything.
He actually said that he wants to start paying $25 a month or something.
$25 a month?
I don't know.
Obviously he's going to be something else.
He has not given me a dime.
Why would a teenage girl who's poor want to have a baby?
I think it's very simple.
It's an achievement.
Having a baby is a tangible achievement in a world where she's going to achieve little.
And where teenage boys, unless they are educated and employed, may achieve even less.
These girls are looking for the males to play the role of breadwinner.
The levels of adolescent childbearing, John, were higher in the past, but the men, no matter
at what educational level they had reached, could find employment.
And the employment that they were able to get was enough to allow them to play the role
of gender male provider for their family, head of the household, the breadwinner.
That is not possible today.
The economy has changed.
We as parents have got to sit down with our children and say, look, this is what I expect.
This is what's acceptable.
This is not acceptable.
We say no to drugs.
Drugs are not acceptable in my household.
Pregnancy is not acceptable here either.
Every parent that I knew, except one, in the study that I did, had said that to their daughters.
Didn't matter?
No.
In 1992, teenage parenthood cost America nearly $34 billion.
It is one of the fastest growing social costs in Sioux City.
And the one thing frustrated adults here don't have is an argument that will convince teenagers
to stop having babies.
I'm sick of it.
I'm really tired of it.
I'm tired of the work.
I don't want to do it anymore.
I'm tired of the tears.
I'm tired of the disappointment.
I'm tired of the poverty that these kids are placing themselves in.
What dreams did you have for yourself before you got pregnant?
Graduating high school, going to college.
I don't know.
Job?
Yeah, a career.
Marriage.
All the things that seem like they're different now.
What's her name again?
Kate and Ashley.
Do you have a dream for your child?
Yeah.
What's that?
That depends the way that I did.
And it keeps right on.
Remember the counseling group of unmarried teenage mothers?
We just heard that last week three other teenagers not pregnant approached one of the group's
counselors and asked if they could join because they said they were thinking about getting
pregnant and having babies too.
And now it's time to set your watches for us and the guys are over at our chop shop.
Well, Diane, earlier in the program we told you that we were going to show you how easily
it is that professionals can turn your car into a lot of pieces.
We've got some guys who can prove it.
You guys ready?
Yeah.
Now do you have any power tools, torches, that sort of thing?
Not at all.
We use just standard hand tools that you'd have in your garage.
All right.
Ready, set, go.
All right.
We just started the clock.
We are running a clock.
They're in a race because that is exactly the way thieves work.
They are in a race against time.
This is a team of auto dismantlers from Dallas, Texas.
They all work for the Allstate Insurance Company.
You are not going to believe how very quickly they can dismantle that car.
We're going away.
We'll come right back in just a couple of minutes.
Day one will continue in a moment.
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Call now for ten cents a minute and get up to a hundred minutes free.
I'm going to make it my mission in life.
Sunday, the Network Television Premier of Patriot Games here on ABC, Brunswick, Gresham
Advised.
Friday.
Car salesmen.
Trust me, I know that this car's a good car.
We sell them a lemon.
Watch what happens when we go undercover to buy it back.
It's still broken.
They haven't repaired anything.
The dirty little secrets of some used car dealers.
A major twenty-twenty investigation.
Friday.
Day one continues from TD1 in New York with Forrest Sawyer.
Well, day one's chop shop is in full operation.
Bill Gruner is Vice President of Claims for Allstate Insurance.
They're busily working on it right now.
This is the front end which they're planning to take off very soon.
How much is the front end worth?
The front end has a retail value of over three thousand dollars.
You notice they've taken the bumper and the hood off.
The bumper being five hundred and eighty-two dollars and the hood some four hundred and
eighty-two dollars.
They usually start in the front, which is the most difficult part of the car to take
apart, and they move to the rear.
Now I understand some thirty percent of all automobiles that are stolen are chopped up
just like this one is being chopped up and they're sold for parts.
Where are those parts all going?
Those parts wind up being recycled back to disreputable shops and put them back on cars
that have been in collision losses.
So it's not really organized I gather.
It's just people all over the country.
No, it's different all over the country depending on where you go.
We work with the National Crime Prevention Institute to track these, create sting operations
where we know they're in operation.
These guys are busily at work.
We're going to come back in just a few moments.
We will show you the next phase and believe me it's going to start flying off of here
in just one moment.
Stay with us.
Day one will continue after this from our ABC station.
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So see Mercury Tracer at your Lincoln Mercury dealer now.
We're in the backyard of Bullseye Billy Rugrash, nine year old comic book reader.
What does he want?
Cable TV.
What did you watch today Billy?
Everything.
Without cable?
I got cable.
Dad said we'd get cable when I paid for it.
TCI has a 95 cent install plan with the purchase of any Star package.
Heck I've got 95 cents.
Sounds like a really great deal.
Yep even Susie down the street has 95 cents and she's a girl.
A convicted killer's escape puts Richard Dreyfus and Emilio Estevez on a routine stakeout.
I love my job so much I'm gonna kill him.
That turns into a deadly encounter.
Second.
Also starring Madeline Stowe.
You're heading in my direction.
And Aiden Quinn.
In the one of a kind action adventure, John Faddam's stakeout.
Watch Cap 35 Sunday afternoon at 4.
Come to the Boat Show at the Mid Valley Mall in Sunnyside.
Day one continues from New York.
Once again Diane Sawyer.
And there it goes.
We're here in a kind of day one chop shop to show you how quickly your car becomes history
if it's stolen.
The top is off.
The top is gone.
What about six minutes?
That's six minutes.
Since we started this and you can see how quickly the car is just disappearing.
The doors are about to come off now.
I'm here with Bill Brunner of Allstate.
These are the most expensive cars?
Yes they are.
Of all the components on this car the doors are.
The four doors on this car have a retail value in excess of $10,000.
Sold individually $2,500 a piece.
Tell me the five top cars that are most desirable out on the street for a thief.
Well it was mentioned earlier the Honda Accord, the Oseville Cutlass, Ford Mustang, Toyota
Camry and Cadillac DeVille.
And what's the least desirable car?
The least desirable I believe is the Chevrolet Cavalier, the station wagon.
The station wagons aren't too popular as far as car deals.
Is this a style issue?
I don't think so.
I don't think they're too popular.
Alright well the guys are hard at work here.
We're going to go back to Forrest now and give them a little more time to evaporate
this car basically.
Alright Diane it's hard to work in such a noisy neighborhood I'll tell you.
Let's go to the movies.
These days it's getting harder and harder to impress movie audiences.
So let's talk about special effects.
The ones in action movies these days whether they're plane crashes, natural disasters or
monsters from outer space have to feel like the real thing.
Hollywood does keep getting better and better at fooling us and one of the best is director
James Cameron his latest film True Lies has just been nominated for an Academy Award in
visual effects.
Robert Crowe which went to Hollywood to learn the secrets of a master.
The year is 1981.
The new galaxy of terror.
Jim Cameron remembers that he wanted more than anything to be a director and here was
his big chance.
I had to do a scene where a severed arm is consumed by worms or maggots.
So it's like okay put in the arm put on the worms you know set the shot and you know we
get all ready to do it it's like okay you know sort of cue the worms.
But the worms don't move.
They just didn't do anything.
So I'm desperate to take my first shot as a director and I'm blowing blowing it you
know.
Suddenly it came to him he would grease the worms with a material that conducts electricity
expose a wire to shock the worms and watch.
So these producers come walking up behind me to watch me work and I'm sitting there
and I go okay roll camera and action.
And the worms all come to life and they're falling around and I say okay that's good
and cut.
And they stop and they're very impressed by this you know they think they scale it up
in their mind if you can do that with worms what can you do with actors.
When he showed it at the sneak preview the audience truly screamed I turned to Jim and
I said you've done it.
Cameron has an obvious talent for engineering special effects.
He loves technology he loves computers and so just 10 years after the worms his effects
got so sophisticated.
Hasta la vista baby.
And so compelling that audiences now expect his films to go where no directors have gone
before in part because he's so competitive and so driven.
Do you have confidence that you're doing this or are you doing it like walking across hot
coals are you driven by fear or driven by what is not not driven by fear driven by some
sort of primal lust to do something that you've always wanted to do and it's so close you
know what I mean that you'll you know you'll do anything short of a criminal act to accomplish
it.
Jim Cameron has here right here in his head what he wants.
He is cursed with a vision.
Special effects artist Stan Winston remembers how Cameron's first big hit the Terminator
began.
Cameron was in bed in Rome with a fever when suddenly he was struck by an image so he jumped
out of bed and drew the picture that was in his head.
That's a drawing that I did before I wrote the script.
So this was this was the idea that popped into your head.
Yeah this is one of them yeah it was like a nightmare the guy that you can't stop.
Cameron was convinced that this precise picture would turn into a great story so he came up
with a second drawing that showed his friend Lance Henriksen as the Terminator.
Jim came over to my house and said Lance I'm going to do you as the Terminator I'll sell
the movie on this picture so it's me as the Terminator half metal and half you know.
So Lance put on like a black leather jacket and he got carried away he did some stuff
that I didn't really want.
Lance is very enthusiastic.
I mean I'd taken tin foil off of a vintage cigarettes and stuck it to my teeth and I
had all gold teeth and scar cut on my face and dressed like a punker.
I kicked the door and said to the secretary where is he was doing the Terminator and then
sat in the room with a producer just staring at it for 10 minutes before Jim arrived.
The producer bought the picture but not Lance.
In the end Arnold Schwarzenegger played the role and since the Terminator is a robot who
kills Jim next needed a robot exactly Arnold size.
So right down to the teeth molded from Arnold's mouth this robot was designed to be the perfect
skeleton for Arnold.
Jim had again created a special effects breakthrough and again it worked.
Which is a rush because if it failed you know I'd have to go kill myself but because it
succeeded it was good positive reinforcement a good confidence builder to go on and do
aliens.
Jim pushed his computers harder on aliens then on the abyss then Terminator 2 then True
Lies and with each film he got a reputation for treating his actors a little like his
machines.
So he would just shoot and take after take after take until it is perfect so it helps
the movie of course but it drives you nuts in the meantime.
And now Jim Cameron is branching out with a new set of partners and money from IBM he
has started a company digital domain to create special effects for anyone who wants them.
And you're looking at his team's work here there are lots of customers more and more
commercials and music videos and movies want illusions that look uncannily real and use
the most sophisticated computer technology.
I've never seen so many scripts that are utilizing visual effects so the market is just exploding.
Scott Ross Cameron's partner says this business involves intricate digital technology.
Take this scene from True Lies once again it stars Arnold Schwarzenegger this time he's
a good guy trying to protect his daughter from a very determined terrorist.
This jumping bad guy moment it was constructed in a computer in layers starting with this
street then adding in this jet then dropping in this stunt digitally combined into one
scene.
But the truth is that is not the real actor that is not a real plane that is not real
smoke that building is not really there.
Nothing's real it does raise some philosophical questions doesn't it.
And Cameron is just as particular about special effects done the old fashioned way here's
Arnold Schwarzenegger being chased by two dobers.
He spins around and does a little dog food.
So knocks them out by banging their heads together.
But you can't bang real dog heads together so Cameron said I want two rubber bangable
dogs.
Can I call them?
Sure.
Sure.
Got to say stay.
Cameron was very specific.
Can we drop one?
The dogs he said should drop like firm rubber chickens.
That looks easy enough but somehow when Arnold bang the dogs a dog eye flew off and rolled
right in front of Jim Cameron.
Well I really want you just sitting here and the dogs eyes pull out what do you think?
We thought oh no because Jim doesn't he's not very tolerant of mistakes and Jim's behind
us and you can feel that burning heat on the back of your neck.
You only knew what we did in Florida.
Jim's doggedness can be contagious.
Jamie Lee Curtis working with Jim on True Lies decided that she herself not a stunt
woman she wanted to dangle from a speeding helicopter high over the highway over the
wall.
Jim was in more danger than I was.
Jim was in the co-pilot seat with the door off standing facing out with a safety strap
around his waist tethered to the helicopter holding the camera shooting down on me.
Come on baby.
That woman there that's Jamie Lee.
And the next time will his next film be even bigger and wilder?
Well Jim has always said that he does not have to use machines and special effects to
tell his stories not at all.
I can if I want to tomorrow make a movie that's a love story a relationship movie two people
in a room for two hours.
I can do it.
There's no problem because I've done I've done parts of it in every film that I've made.
But somehow he can't help himself even this simple shot the hero kissing the girl at the
end of the picture.
What does he do?
He adds the small thermonuclear bomb.
Why?
Because he can't.
And cut.
That's a cut.
You can bet that Jim Cameron is going to stay busy.
He has plans for a new high tech adventure movie based this time on a comic book hero.
It is Spider-Man.
Well let's check in once again on our day one chop shop.
Diane how are we doing?
Diane you can I'm Diane.
You're for us.
I've got that right.
You can see for us that if your car were stolen tonight it would be what the tires come off.
That's the end.
All the profitable items have been taken off the car so about 15 30 minutes later you can
kiss it goodbye.
It's not even traceable.
When we come back we're going to tell you some really useful things you can do to prevent
just this from happening to your car.
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They move to the music but are driven by the competition.
It's the ice dancing finals of the State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Saturday on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
It's every cop's job to catch criminals.
But this isn't just any job.
He faked his own death and was reborn.
He changes faces, robs banks and turns killer.
That's a job for the Marshall and that's a reason to stay home Saturday nights.
The Marshall on ABC.
February 26th.
One of the greatest films of all time.
Winner of seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director Kevin Costner.
Dances with Wolves.
I'm an actress and I sing and I dance.
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Every so often one of my customers will bring up one of the C-FIRST photo cards and I always
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What I like about the photo card is it's me on the card and so only I can use it.
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Nice, huh?
So it took our guys what about 15 minutes 30 seconds as I understand it to dismantle
this car and that's standard right before the police are going to come.
Most thieves calculate.
Depending on what area they're in, yes.
Now tell me a little bit about the value of this car intact and the value of it in its
parts.
How much more valuable is it?
Well when the thief took the car he probably was paid three to five hundred dollars to
bring the car to the chop shop.
The chop shop taking the parts which have a retail value if you purchased each one of
these components individually would run you about twenty three thousand dollars.
Twenty three thousand dollars.
But the chop shop's not going to get twenty three thousand dollars.
You'll get a fraction of that from a disreputable repairer possibly in the area of forty percent
of that twenty three thousand.
A nice day's work.
A very nice day's work.
And is there any way to ensure that these parts are not profitable if it's like the
drug trade and that big and that difficult to control is there any way to do that?
It is and during the 80s we saw a rapid rise in auto theft.
The last three years the National Insurance Bureau has told us that they're starting to
see a decrease in the frequency of auto theft because we're doing programs like this, education,
and one of the things that really would stop this is a certified central tracking system
of those parts that are around here so that a buyer would know that those parts came from
a stolen car and wouldn't buy them.
Right now we don't have that.
Thanks to you Bill also to Chuck, Lyle, and John.
Thanks a lot guys.
And back to Forrest for some useful tips.
Diane it is worth mentioning that there are other ways you can protect your car and some
of them are surprisingly simple.
Protecting your car.
It's a half billion dollar a year industry but experts say there are only a few basic
strategies that work.
The first level of defense, deterrence.
A casual thief may avoid an inexpensive device like the club but as we've already seen it
poses few problems for a thief who really wants your car.
Then there are kill switches that disable the starter or cut off the fuel supply.
If the switch is well hidden so only you know where it is, experts say it's an effective
defense.
The proven vehicle recovery system.
If your car is stolen there are expensive systems that hide a homing device so police
can track the vehicle.
They claim a high recovery rate but your car could be driven out of range or chopped up
even before the device is turned on.
Perhaps the best suggestion, don't overlook the obvious.
Lock your car, roll your windows up all the way, park in a well lighted area.
You can turn your wheels all the way to the curb when you lock your car so it makes it
difficult to tow.
You can also have your vehicle identification number etched on windows to make the parts
easier to trace.
Even the people who sell alarms admit that no system is thief proof but it may slow them
down.
The system can be defeated.
The key in auto theft is you want to delay the thief as long as possible.
And our thanks once again to the team from Allstate.
We'll be back in just a moment.
Day one will continue in a moment.
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Y'all are in a recession in Egypt.
It is amazing.
A sparkling ship on crystal waters is coming.
Absolutely gorgeous, it was so much fun.
The perfect lobster is coming.
They would do anything for us, anytime.
Perfection is coming.
A gift from the captain.
Memories are coming.
Seven days in Royal Caribbean's Caribbean are coming.
You've got some Royal Caribbean coming.
Nightline is coming up a little later and here's Ted Koppel.
Tonight on Nightline, a videotape of Nicole Simpson's home.
And police describe a phone call following the murders.
It was what O.J. Simpson didn't say, didn't ask,
that may have had the most impact in court.
Tonight.
Tonight on Nightline, after your late local news.
And tomorrow night, 2020.
I'm Diane Sawyer, good night.
And I'm Forrest Sawyer.
For all of us here at ABC News, good night.
The American Broadcasting Company, ABC.