It’s almost like criminals don’t care anymore…
It used to be car thieves only hit up car dealerships in the middle of the night when nobody was there and darkness obscured their activities. Now they’re showing up on dealer lots in the middle of the day and taking whatever they like, as shown in a news report from ABC13 Houston. Some thieves went by a local Chrysler dealership and drove off with a Ram TRX no problem, making it all look so easy.
Learn how a dealership sold a stolen car here.
First off, it’s not like the dealership doesn’t have security measures. As noted in the report, there are surveillance cameras and those are connected to a plate reader service. When the thieves showed up at the dealership in a Cadillac that had been reported as stolen, the service called the dealership to warn them.
But if you’ve ever called a car dealership for anything, you know how quickly they react to a call and pass you off to the right person. So pretty much that technology didn’t do anything other than document what happened. Oh, and the dealership didn’t realize the Ram TRX was missing for some time after.
These thieves drove into the service department lot where there are fewer people. One of them popped the back window out of the truck and just climbed into the cab, then fired up the engine all while a dealership employee walked right past.
With the truck started, which we assume was done by reprogramming the ignition using an expensive device, the thieves drove away. And that was it.
If car dealerships continue acting as vending machines for car thieves, they’re going to have to step up security protocols to the point they might actually rival the crack TSA agents. Because at the moment it seems they’re asleep at the wheel and criminals are absolutely taking advantage.
