Palazzo-Angulo threw a robe over her pajamas and hurried out of her northeast Salem home. Police had spotted her gold Honda Accord driving through Keizer, then found it abandoned, near Weeks and Cherry avenues N. Police also found stolen property stashed in her trunk.

Police think Palazzo-Angulo is one of the potential victims of a prolific thief who might be responsible for several Salem-area vehicle thefts. Jeffery Hamilton, 27, has been convicted twice on vehicle-theft crimes and was arrested in connection to a half-dozen others.

"It was right after Thanksgiving," Palazzo-Angulo said. "We woke up in the morning, and my son-in-law said, 'Isn't there supposed to be a car in the driveway?'"

Palazzo-Angulo often works from her home. The morning her vehicle was stolen, she coordinated with family and friends in order to share rides to meetings and work. But long term, Palazzo-Angulo and her husband, Eduardo, didn't know what would happen.

"We were just discussing how awful it would be," she said. "We were trying to figure out how long we were going to have to go without buying another one."

Palazzo-Angulo said that most of their household finances go toward home payments and medical care. The Honda was insured, but the policy did not include theft coverage. She figured that older, cheaper cars would save more money in the long run -- and then she learned from police that later-model vehicles such as Accords are the most targeted by car thieves.

An employee of Dixon's had parked the pickup in northeast Salem, along with some other business vehicles. About 5 a.m., the Chevy was reported stolen, and two other pickups were broken into -- one door lock was picked, and a window was smashed in another vehicle.

Dixon called police immediately and began filing the report, which included about $40,000 in heavy tools stolen with the truck, including a 500-watt Honda generator. Most of his business tools were striped in his company's signature blue paint, as well as his company's initials.

Dixon also alerted his friend Jim Evans, the owner of 13th Street Tools in southeast Salem. Evans told Dixon he'd keep an eye out for any possible sellers; he had just sold that generator to Dixon a few weeks earlier.

"I said, 'Fine, I'd love to see it,'" Evans said. "And I called Tim right back, and I said, 'Get your butt down here. I think your tools are fixing to come in.'"

Dixon pretended he was an employee when two men walked in about 9:30 a.m. Dixon and Evans walked out to a sedan parked next to the shop and saw Dixon's generator on the back seat.

Hamilton told police that he found the tools in the pickup, parked about 20 blocks away. Dixon was able to recover his pickup, which he described as a junker, but only about two-thirds of his business tools.

"I had insurance on the vehicle but not the tools themselves," he said. Dixon said he carries business insurance, but insuring individual tools would raise his premiums too high.

Dixon later testified in front of a grand jury. His case was consolidated with two others, but not Palazzo-Angulo's. Hamilton was convicted of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and other theft charges from unrelated incidents. Hamilton was given a 13-month prison sentence and was released Oct. 28, 2004.

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