That's 120 tires and rims, and 30 busted windows. Must have taken quite a while, and you would need a big truck to haul the wheels. Why breakout the passenger window when the trunk release is on the drivers side?



UNION COUNTY, N.C. - Dozens of new cars were found on jacks without wheels at the Metro Honda dealership in Union County, deputies said.

More than 30 cars were found on jacks with broken out windows.

Deputies said they broke the windows to get to the jacks in the trunks.

Investigators believe the crimes could be tied to another theft at a Car Connections including one at 4918 West Highway 74 in Monroe. Radios were stolen from the vehicles at that dealership

There is no word yet on how much the damage will cost.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/loc...puties-say/533095825

Too bad they didn't put that much effort into getting a job.

Edited for grammar.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Expat,

I've worked at dealerships since 1970 and lot theft is a way of life. Fences, no problem, cut them. Walls, no problem, scale them. On site security, well they can't be on both sides of the lot. Or better yet, they can steal from the lot they are watching. Dogs, lure them with drugged hamburger, nighty night.

One dealership I worked at, thieves came in at night, disconnected the lot lights at the access in the post, instant darkness to work in.

I blame the insurance companies for a lot of this. Wheels, tires and radios are virtually untraceable. If they refused to purchase these for use in repairs a lot of the market would disappear. Fifteen or twenty years back some insurers recognized this and refused to recycle these items. Of course when their costs went up relative to other insurers, that policy was reversed.

There was a radio theft ring broken up a few years back running between Florida and the midwest. By chance a stolen radio was replaced by the same radio stolen. Seems that a home burned CD was left in the radio, when the car owner got the car back he realized his own CD was in the player. Heard about that one in the news.

I remember the story dating back to the 1980's. Car in Detroit was stolen, front clip was removed. Body shop ordered a used clip assembly per the insurer. Body shop manager saw the clip's color matched the car. Upon further inspection they found that the hand painted pinstripes (not factory) on the clip perfectly matched in location and color to the stolen and recovered car. Another recovery.

I remember a story about 12-15 years. Some exotic expensive salvage yard was getting broken in regularly, I think it was Amarillo.

Hired security was worthless.

Security dogs were worthless, hamburger thrown over the fence made them sleepy, lazy and friendly.

The final solution was Ostriches. Yes, Ostriches. Those big birds were mean, foul tempered and mean. Really mean.

After a few nights of thieves getting the crap kicked out of them and hurt badly, the thieves moved on.

I'd love to have seen some video.
.

inside job?

How much can honda wheels be worth? It's not like there's an aftermarket calling for them or they have real expensive tires on them? I don't get it, 30 sets????

One dealership I worked at out west was hit twice, both times by different ex-employees. Once burglary, the other was caught stripping trucks on the lot for tailgates.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
How much can honda wheels be worth? It's not like there's an aftermarket calling for them or they have real expensive tires on them? I don't get it, 30 sets????

If the wheels sell for, say $150 used and you give maybe 20 bucks, pretty good profit margin. They don't need to be expensive, just quick and easy to turn. The dealership that the lights were disabled at, the cars they hit were Grand Ams, the ones with the chrome plastic overlays over the castings. Again, turn and burn.

If the insurance company sees the factory new wheels are $500 each they may allow the repair shop $250-300 dollar range for used ones. It all comes down to most profit in the quickest time frame.

Chop shops are profitable, low overhead, high turn rate of inventory.

Did they break into each car for its jack? Unless its like 10 people going all at once, I assume they didn't realize you could use the same jack on almost all cars and the other same jack on almost all trucks. Also, a $30 Harbor Freight pneumatic jack would have been a hell of a lot faster than those compact jacks. A scissor jack takes forever to raise and lower, times 4 wheels, times 30 cars!?!?! How much time does it take to break into the car, open the trunk, unscrew the spare to get the jack off? This has all the makings for a great ACT math problem.

Our neighborhood got hit recently and they targeted only Fords.

They were bold enough to take landscape blocks from some yards to use to jack up the vehicles in others. Even went as far as unscrewing light bulbs at the target houses.

I'm still shocked at the boldness as this is a typical cookie cutter neighborhood with close houses. How they did it without anyone noticing astounded me.

Another trick is to wedge bricks or whatever they can find under the body, frame or suspension and deflate the tires. Pull the lug nuts off and there you are. They can get a regular production line going there with the help of battery powered tools.

Not making a whole lot sense to me. You have to have a a box truck or a trailer, right? Why not bring a couple of floor jacks with you? You could raise a car in just a few seconds and then go on to the next one. These guys spent a lot of time and trouble getting these scissor jacks which are time consuming to use.

Honda tires? Hey, I just bought a new Honda and they are not that fancy, believe me. Plus, a Hankook tire?

None of this makes much sense to me. But then, they did get away with it.

Recent from Michigan:http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2017/06/45_cars_broken_into_at_pinckne.html

Love the last line "looking for a link between thefts"....I doubt it was a bunch of teenagers out for thrills.

quote:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve Sig:
Did they break into each car for its jack? Unless its like 10 people going all at once, I assume they didn't realize you could use the same jack on almost all cars and the other same jack on almost all trucks. Also, a $30 Harbor Freight pneumatic jack would have been a hell of a lot faster than those compact jacks. A scissor jack takes forever to raise and lower, times 4 wheels, times 30 cars!?!?! How much time does it take to break into the car, open the trunk, unscrew the spare to get the jack off? This has all the makings for a great ACT math problem.

Would it be possible to remove the jack with the car lowered all the way to the ground without any tires on it?

Maybe it wasn't the Jacks they wanted, but the wheel locks?

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Maybe it wasn't the Jacks they wanted, but the wheel locks?

Yeah I can't imagine using a crappy OEM jack to do all of those.

haha they can HAVE those lousy Honda wheels. So fugly. The Accord has the worst looking oem wheels in the history of cars.

I used this VIN window etching kit on our car. Also comes with some stickers that impregnate the VIN with a UV paint on the major removable body parts.

http://www.vinetching.com/do-it-yourself.html

I've also manually etched the VIN onto an inside area of the aluminum rims. This is about the best I figure one can do.

If you're talking about the standard wheels maybe. I like the the higher line ones.

quote:

Originally posted by DonDraper:
haha they can HAVE those lousy Honda wheels. So fugly. The Accord has the worst looking oem wheels in the history of cars.

I'm going through something similar with my new F-350 right now...

My truck suddenly died a couple of weeks ago and I called "Ford Cares 800 number"

They send a flatbed and tow it to the nearest dealer ( who I have been using). They replace the fuel pump and when i went to pick it up the tailgate was missing...
Do you want to guess what a new tailgate costs??? Well you'd be wrong it is $4200!! and to top it off the dealership said for me to file it on my insurance...

To say I'm pissed would be an understatement...