The “Grand Auto Theft” story happened last Sunday in the early morning hours as thieves broke into the Chevrolet dealership in Texas and stole brand-new car wheels worth $250,000. The interesting part is that the tires weren’t in some storage room but were in fact, bolted to a line of brand-new cars and trucks – 48 vehicles to be precise.
The unidentified thieves arrived in a huge truck, cut the locks at the gates at 1:22 a.m before entering the premise. Next, they disabled the light system of the assembly line – which lights the new vehicles, reported by Automotive News.
Next morning, the employees were alarmed to see 48 tire-less vehicles in the lot that included Traverse crossovers, Camaros and Silverado pickups on bricks and their lug bolts scattered here and there. According to the Police, the theft was completed in approximately four hours. Despite working security cameras, there were no lights and cameras did not have night vision. Hence, it is unclear how many burglars were involved.
“We’ll go through and do a full safety inspection, get wheels and tires replaced and we’ve contacted our insurance company.” said David Bates, GM at Peltier Chevrolet.
Police say that a similar theft happened a year ago at another dealership in the same town. In fact, the entire state’s dealerships have reported similar incidents.
Although the theft is quite upsetting, one has to wonder how the thieves managed to get off about 192 wheels off 48 cars in just 4 hours? It is pretty impressive. However, their next task is even more daunting: the thieves will now have to unload and sell 192 car wheels without getting caught!