Do people steal new cars from automobile dealerships at night?

Here’s a local story of a theft from a used car dealer.

Here’s a story out of Chicago where the luxury car dealership made the questionable decision to leave keys in the ignitions of cars for a good 6 months, losing a hundred cars in the process.

where the luxury car dealership made the questionable decision to leave keys in the ignitions

To clarify, that was dealerships, plural, not one place. Many places in the metro area.

One day when I was 15 we decided to rescue a girl I fancied that had been shipped off to Sacramento for being a problem child from her really conservative parents. Shipped off to even worse grandparents.

My friend Bryan had a car and we decided to rescue her. And Bill was just stupid enough to tag along.

The problem here is we had no cash. So we asked Bill’s dad who was a heroin addict. Shockingly he gave us 20 bucks.

So we went to the fish tank store and got a siphon for the gravel in fishtanks.

This might seem like a odd purchase when you have limited funds. But we had tried to do the sucking on the end of a garden hose to get gas out of a car before and it was a mess. With the fish tank thing there is a bulb that is one way that only goes one way. Free gas without using your mouth. It is fast and silent.

So we make it to Roseburg and are low on gas. Time was running out and we found a church. It was still light out but didn’t have many options so we found a van in a church parking lot. The goal was to make it to Medford about a 90 minutes away so we could eat at my aunts. So we fill our tank from the van. Sorry church.

So we get grub at my aunts and she loads us up with a cooler and tons of sandwich supplies and Doritos.

I ask my uncle if he has a spare gas can.. You know, just to be safe since I am responsibly going to kidnap someone. He is a gearhead and had tons of them. So when he isn’t paying attention I shove as many as I can in our trunk.

Time to head out and since Medford is a sleepy little town we head out looking for sources of gas. We find a used car place that had a lot of old cars like Chevys from the 50’s and these were ideal to steal gas from. We got a good 80 gallons stashed in our trunk. The problem here is that the cans leaked fumes so even with the windows down we were getting murdered from the fumes.

So while we didn’t steal a car the security was so lax we could siphon for a few hours without any real interruption.

Was your kidnapping attempt successful?

The new car deales I’ve been to (around here) have major quantities of cameras everywhere, inside and out.

Apparently stealing the wheels is the way to go around here.

Unfortunately, Peltier Chevrolet in Tyler, Texas found that out the hard way when thieves stole the wheels and tires off of 48 cars on its lot.

The thieves managed to knock out the bright spotlights illuminating the lot, then cut the locks on the gates behind the dealership. Over the next four hours, they made off with up to $250,000 in wheels and tires.

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A dealership in Hutto is trying to figure out who came in and stole rims and tires from approximately 50 vehicles over the weekend.

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Tyler police are trying to determine if thieves who swooped down on a Cadillac dealer and made off with wheels and tires from about 20 vehicles are connected to a similar theft in the Dallas area.

A Chevrolet dealer in Richardson was hit similarly last week and lost tires and wheels from 29 vehicles.

Customers of chop shops aren’t looking for parts from new cars. They are looking for parts for older cars. My 1999 Honda doesn’t need a bumper from a 2017 or 2018 Honda, and it wouldn’t fit.

@ragingloli :: The kidnap was successful. We arrived where she was staying and only she was there. She willing got in the car and se decided to go to San Francisco. We got there at night and drove around a bit and then tried to find a place to park and sleep. We ended up in a bad place in Oakland. We got some sleep and then woke up to a cop banging on the window. The cop was pretty much “WTF are you doing here? Do you know how to get on the Interstate back to Sacramento?” So he escorted use to I-80.

The girl we “kidnapped” had some cash so we were good on gas for a while but everyone was hungry. We find a Dennys and they decide to dine and dash. I object and stay in the car.

The plan was Melissa and Bryan would walk out to the car and make it look like Bill was finishing up and cover the check. The waitress gets suspicious. Bill has no good exit strategy. And we were parked around the corner so they didn’t know where Melissa and Bryan walked to. A really long time passes. A good 30 minutes.

So the owner approaches Bill and is like WTF.. You can’t sit here any longer. Pay your bill and get out. Then in a masterstroke Bill says hes was hitchhiking and he thinks the people he was with bailed and stuck him with the bill and stole his backpack since it was in the car.

Then it gets better. The owner of the Dennys offers to take Bill to the Bus station and buy him a ticket back to Oregon.

Then shit gets hilarious.

At this point we were really wondering what was taking so damn long. So Bryan decides to go back in and see if Bill is alright. The con is up. So they just admit what they did and hope for the best. Luckily the owner was nice and he just let them go with a self addressed stamped envelope and asked them to send them what was owed. Which I did since they were idiots.

On the road again.

We do some panhandling on our way back north. We got really lucky here. I brought my trumpet and most importantly my trumpet case with me on the trip. I used the case as a place to put my spare coins everyday. There was about ten bucks in pennies, nickles, and dimes in there. Ten bucks doesn’t get much gas but it does if you sit outside a gas station and spell out “OREG” with change. It is a good hook for panhandling. “Help us spell Oregon!! so we can get home”. People were going into the gas station to get change so they could help us finish the word. Then when they go away you remove what the added and carry on. This was shockingly profitable.

So we make it to Lake Shasta and get a camping spot and put up a tent. I didn’t smoke weed at the time but Bill and Melissa did. So they end up going into the tent and got high. Me and Bryan just fell asleep in the car.

So the next morning they emerge from the tent and Bill is all “Fucked the shit out her”. Fantastic. He appears to have forgot the entire reason for the trip… I liked her.. But fuck it. At least I knew to move on.

So the final push back to Eugene was filled with a lot of silence. I was living with my sister at the time and my sister was cool with her staying at my place until something can be sorted out. That was clearly out the window. Bill got off and he didn’t care anymore.

So we are about 30 minutes out of town and we stop to get gas. She goes to use the restroom so we had a chance to figure out what to do. Bryan said, “Drop her off at her parents house”.

And we tried to do that. But she bolted at a red light once she realized what was happening.

I saw her at party a few months later but we didn’t speak.