ROCKLAND – City police are looking for an enterprising thief who combed the south end neighborhood looking for unregistered cars and sold them to a junkyard.

Deputy Police Chief Wallace Tower said the man apparently spotted two unregistered cars parked on Linden Street and sold them to a salvage yard for $100 each. Tower said police have a good idea who the person is.

Tower said the first incident was reported Wednesday by a man who arrived home and noticed that his disabled Ford Escort was missing. The vehicle was unregistered and the license plates had been removed months ago.

On Thursday, police received another call from a Linden Street resident who observed a tow truck driver getting ready to remove a Ford Escort from his neighbor’s yard. The owner had heard about the Wednesday theft and asked the neighbor to keep an eye on his car. When the neighbor approached the tow truck driver the young man “selling” the car ran off. The driver said he paid the man $100 for each car.

The tow truck driver then chased the man but was unable to catch him as he ran to a car and drove away, Tower said Friday. The truck driver told police the man had told him he owned both of the cars.