Surveillance Tape Shows Young People Stealing Mostly Luxury Cars
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami)---New surveillance tape shows some striking images at a Fort Lauderdale auto dealership as some young people are captured on camera stealing mostly luxury cars.
Some of them appear to be juveniles. Fort Lauderdale Police have released new photographs of three of the five suspects.
It happened in the darkness of early morning Monday at Premium Cars at 1806 State Road 7 just south of Davie Boulevard. The owner, Igor Gusev, told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that it is the second time in the past two months that cars have been stolen from the business that he has operated for the past six years.
"This is the second time in two months that this has happened to me," said Gusev. "They did break into the office and they stole the keys. This has been happening in this area with stolen cars. They just keep going back out on the street and stealing cars again and again."
Gusev says his surveillance tape captures one suspect breaking the glass of a side door at 3:20 a.m. Then, for more than 40 minutes, the suspects are captured on camera scouring the business, scaling a fence and then using the stolen key pads to turn on the lights of cars to decide which ones they want to take.
In one image, all five suspects are seen walking up and down busy State Road 7 as some cars drive by. They are also seen walking towards the front of the business.
They then use one of the dealership's vehicles to drive through and break down the front fence. They leave that vehicle behind, on State Road 7, as they leave in a convoy, driving North towards nearby Davie Boulevard.
"This is a problem with me, on top of what happens here this is not easy running this business," said Gusev. "I have to recover the stolen cars and get new keys. And before you know it the day is done."
Gusev said the stolen cars included a 2007 Silver Infiniti M35, a 2008 grey Nissan Altima and a 2006 black Mercedes CLS. Police said those vehicles were installed with OnStar, which helped detectives locate them. Two vehicles were located in Fort Lauderdale.
Gusev said two vehicles are still missing: a 2006 black Lexus and a 2010 red Audi A4.
Gusev said two of his vehicles that were stolen a month ago were recovered.
Further south on State Road 7, Camilo Machado, the General Manager of Apple Auto Wholesalers, said he believes the same group may have stolen 87 keys and 9 cars from him about a month and a half ago and who returned this morning.
"I believe it's the same guys," he said. "Like the 4 or 5 people who came to our business. And this morning they came back and did the same thing. They shut down the power and tried to break in through the locks and Windows. This is a nightmare. It's not just the cars. You have to get all the keys back."
Across State Road 7 from Gusev, Larry Karnick, the owner of EZ Auto, says he too has been victimized before.
"They all seem to be kids who bypass the alarm system the same way," he said. "They are looking for motion detectors and then breaking in if they don't have any."
"If you do the crime and don't get punished for stealing cars," he said, "then you tend to do it again."
Gusev said even though the suspects were at his business for more tan 40 minutes, Fort Lauderdale Police were not alerted until a witness called them. That's when they responded immediately but the suspects were gone.
"I don't know what to do," said Gusev. "I can't put up bars and chase away business. Maybe a motion sensor would help. I am not sure what I am going to do."
