>“Have begun getting warrants” means that they were doing this before, without them. Would "have begun buying widgets" mean that they used to steal widgets? At

>“Have begun getting warrants” means that they were doing this before, without them. Would "have begun buying widgets" mean that they used to steal widgets? At worst, it's an ambiguous phrase; but context and common sense tell us that the ambiguity resolves in the opposite way from how you're resolving it.