At the March 17th, 2005 meeting of the WSATI Southern Chapter, Past President and 1999 Billy Osborn Award recipient Gary Labb (Santa Ana Police / OCATT) came up to the podium to make the Billy Osborn Memorial Award presentation for 2004.  Gary spoke of the background of the award and his contacts with Billy.  Gary then announced the 2004 recipient of the award to be Bill Lovold, Los Angeles Police Department BAD-CATS (retired) and currently with the AAA Southern California Special Investigations Unit.  Bill came up and spoke about how honored he was because he had had the opportunity to work with Billy Osborn.

Bill was recognized for his many years as a Detective assigned to BAD-CATS, his years of working with insurance company special investigation units, and his many contributions to the WSATI Southern Chapter.  Bill is a past president and has been involved in the behind the scenes work for many of the Southern Chapter hosted seminars as well as the recent IAATI Seminar.  Bill has been the driving force behind the golf tournaments that keep coming up at seminars.

You can reach Bill Lovold at . 

At the January 15th, 2004 meeting of the WSATI Southern Chapter, Lou Koven, Los Angeles Police Department BAD-CATS, was presented with the Billy Osborn Memorial Award for the year 2003.

This year WSATI was honored to have Tom Osborn, Billy's son, be part of the awards presentation.  Tom spoke of conversations with Billy about his involvement in WSATI and his contacts with law enforcement.  Tom, like Billy, works for State Farm Insurance.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, Lou was not able to attend the awards presentation.  The award was accepted on his behalf by his long time partner Bill Lovold.  The formal presentation of the award will take place at a WSATI meeting in the future.

Lou was recognized for his many years as a Detective assigned to BAD-CATS, as well as his many contributions to the WSATI Southern Chapter.  Lou is a past president and has been involved in the behind the scenes work for many of the Southern Chapter hosted seminars as well as the recent IAATI Seminar.  Lou was further recognized for the two years (plus) that he put in to obtain the bid for the 51st IAATI Training Seminar, and then co-chairing the actual Seminar in Los Angeles in August 2003. 

You can reach Lou Koven at . 

At the January 16th, 2003 meeting of the WSATI Southern Chapter, Carol VanNatter, Auto Club of Southern California SIU, was presented with the Billy Osborn Memorial Award for the year 2002.

Carol thanked everyone and said she was speechless.  Once that phase passed, she was humbled by the award because she had the opportunity to have known Billy.

Carol was recognized for her many years (less than the 75 attributed to her by Terry) as a SIU investigator for the Auto Club of Southern California, as well as her many contributions to the WSATI Southern Chapter.  Carol is a past president and has been involved in the behind the scenes work for many of the Southern Chapter hosted seminars as well as most of the recent IAATI Seminars.  Carol was declared the "brick" of WSATI several years ago as she was part of the foundation that the Southern Chapter was built upon. 

Many of us were surprised that Carol had not previously received this award.  Then we thought about how she was always on the award committee talking about the contributions of others and nominating other members.  Carol was surprised by the award as she believed no one had been nominated for the award this year.  It was a difficult secret to keep.

You can read more about Carol by clicking here.

Terry thanked everyone and said he was especially pleased to accept the award because he was lucky enough to have known Billy.

Terry was recognized for his many years as a vehicle theft investigator for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, as well as his contributions to the WSATI Southern Chapter.  Terry is a past president and has been involved in the behind the scenes work for many of the Southern Chapter hosted seminars.

You can reach Terry Cramer at . 

Fritz thanked everyone and quickly exited the podium, stating "boys, you're going to make me cry."

Fritz was recognized for his many years as a vehicle theft investigator for the California Highway Patrol and the Orange County Auto Theft Task Force, as well as his contributions to the WSATI Southern Chapter. 

You can read more about Fritz by clicking here.

When Gary accepted the award, he reflected back to knowing Billy and just how much Billy did for law enforcement and WSATI.  Gary was humbled by being presented the award, stating he was both surprised, but quite happy to accept an award honoring someone like Billy.  Gary was recognized for his many years as a vehicle theft investigator at the Santa Ana Police Department and the Orange County Auto Theft Task Force, as well as his contributions to the WSATI Southern Chapter.  Gary was further recognized for putting WSATI out to the world by way of the World Wide Web with the WSATI website at www.wsati.org that Gary created less than a year ago.  Gary has also come up through the WSATI ranks, from being a committee member at WSATI training seminars, to being the Year 2000 President of the WSATI Southern Chapter.

You can reach Gary Labb at .