Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 | 11:38 PM
A man who Fresno police describe as the city's No. 1 auto thief is behind bars, but there is no guarantee he will stay there for long, a Fresno County Jail official said Friday.
Robert Frederick Wollert, 32, of Fresno, who has bragged to police that he has stolen 1,000 vehicles in the Fresno area, was arrested just before midnight Thursday.
He was wanted on several warrants, including three with no bail, on counts that include suspicion of auto theft, receiving stolen vehicles, receiving stolen property and drug possession.
But Assistant Sheriff Tom Gattie said that jailers can't guarantee that Wollert will stay behind bars. "It depends on his classification and where he falls in terms of the early releases," he said.
Because of county budget cuts, Sheriff Margaret Mims has opted to close jail floors, which reduces the jail's capacity. When the number of inmates hits capacity, the jail must begin releasing inmates.
After the state realigned the prison system to divert low-level felons to county jails instead of housing them in prisons, the county got enough money for staffing to open 501 more beds and now has 2,427 available.
But as of Friday morning, the jail was in excess of 94% capacity. Early releases may begin once the capacity hits 90%.
That means inmates considered the "lowest-level" offenders, those typically accused of property crimes such as auto theft, are released. Those releases began again earlier this week.
Fresno County Jail records show that 30 inmates who have been charged with felonies but not yet arraigned were released this week because of the jail's population cap. Two of them were booked for auto theft, the records show.
"I wish we had the ability to keep them all," Gattie said. "There is a lot of aggravation in this."
If Wollert is released early, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Friday, "I will be disappointed but not surprised.
"I look forward to the day where Robert Wollert stands before a judge and receives the maximum sentence allowed. Until that day occurs. he will continue to victimize people as long as our jails can't hold him."
After Fresno earned the dubious distinction as the nation's auto-theft capital in June, Wollert was one of five men prominently mentioned at a Fresno police news conference.
He was No. 1 on the Fresno Police Department's five "most wanted" list for auto thieves, a group that Dyer said officers would focus on arresting.
Wollert's arrest means three of those top five are now behind bars.
Robert Gonzales of Fresno was sentenced to five years in prison, and Tino Tufono remains in Fresno County Jail, Fresno police Sgt. Tim Tietjen said.
Two other men, Lorenzo de la Torre and Genaro Montes, are on the loose, and police believe they have left Fresno, he said.
Police thought Wollert had also left Fresno. But officers from northeast Fresno's district crime-suppression team found him at an apartment complex near Shaw and Cedar avenues about 11 p.m. Thursday while they were looking for someone else, Tietjen said.
"He told our officers that he just got back into town," he said.
Wollert told officers that he stole vehicles almost every night and delivered them to brokers operating chop shops, Tietjen said.
"Just taking him off the street will reduce our rate," he said.
When the jail has to release inmates because of overcrowding, police see a surge in auto theft almost immediately, Tietjen said.
The number of auto thefts had fallen from 20 to 21 per day earlier this year to fewer than eight a day. But after this week's releases, the number of thefts spiked as high as 17 one day, Tietjen said.
Meanwhile, police continue to arrest chop shop operators, also cutting into the auto theft rate, he said. So far, 42 chop shops have been shut down in 2011, compared with 30 for all of 2010.
On Thursday night, police with search warrants closed down two northwest Fresno chop shops and arrested four people, a week after arresting a man who was stealing cars for the two shops, Tietjen said.
Officers working undercover as auto dismantlers also bought drugs, identities from previous auto thefts, including credit cards, and a weapon, he said.
In this year's chop shop arrests, 75 weapons have been seized by police, Tietjen said.
