DAYTON -- The newest installment of the Grand Theft Auto video game remains as controversial as ever for its depiction of crime and violence.

Many have called the video game series the cause or at least a sign of a cultural decline in America, but an auto historian and author says society's fascination with car thieves is as old as cars themselves.

"In film, books and legend, the car thief is a mix of villain, ingenious thrill-seeker and sympathetic outlaw," said John Heitmann, University of Dayton history professor. "This fiction often follows reality, which is a cops-and-robbers arms race between theft-prevention technology and sophisticated thieves."...