- Landmark Lincoln in Englewood, Colorado, has been targeted twice by wheel thieves in recent months.
- The dealer says that the damage to its vehicles following these thefts amounts to tens of thousands of dollars.
- To prevent this from happening again, the dealership is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of the perpetrators.
When you think about it, dealerships are pretty vulnerable. The businesses have to keep a lot of vehicles on-hand at all times, leaving many of them parked outside, and at risk of being targeted by people with ill-intentions, such as a group of three thieves in Englewood, Colorado.
The robbers first targeted Landmark Lincoln about a month and a half ago, and then last week, they appear to have returned. In videos shared by the dealership, the thieves can be seen jacking up vehicles and stealing their wheels.
Read: Thieves Steal 911 GT3 And GT3 RS Smashing Through Porsche Showroom
“They come in and canvass the lot, and they see when is a good time to come in, which has been like 11 to 12 o’clock at night,” Ed Safko, the dealer’s general manager, told Fox13. “And they’ll send in the guy kind of sneaking around the lot. They’ll park right on South Broadway and they’ll load up right there, so I mean they are not shy at all.”
In the latest hit, two thieves removed the wheels from a pair of vehicles, before walking them over to a getaway vehicle that a third accomplice was waiting in. According to Safko, although the vehicles weren’t taken, the cost of the lost wheels and the damage to the affected SUVs is high.
“The damage on just one car, it was close to 10 grand, the wheels and tires and brake parts,” said Safko. “You order the parts and try and rush them in and it’s a big expense. Car parts are not inexpensive, so it hurts us when we come in and see something like this.”
Now, the dealer is taking matters into its own hands. In addition to installing high-definition security cameras, and wheel locks on all its vehicles, Landmark Lincoln is also offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to these thieves being caught.
“If you can provide any information that could be useful to us in the arrest and conviction of these individuals you see here would be very helpful and much appreciated by Landmark Lincoln,” said Lawrence Perez, the dealer’s internet and marketing sales manager, in a video. “To show how serious we are, we are offering a $20,000 reward, again, for the arrest and conviction of these suspects.”