Last week was unusually dramatic for dealerships in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Ill., as thieves became increasingly brazen and stole seven vehicles from two dealerships.
The thefts have received considerable coverage in local media.
It started on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 24, when a vehicle of five people pulled into the lot of Infiniti of Naperville. Three people hopped out and walked up to a 2016 and 2014 QX60, right out of the car wash, climbed in and drove off as stunned employees looked on.
“They walked right up as if they owned the cars and popped in and that was it,” Mike Korallus, executive manager of the store, told Automotive News. “The employees weren’t sure whether this was the rightful owner because they walked right up, made eye contact, waved -- all that.”
Korallus immediately called the Naperville Police Department after his employees ran in to tell him what happened. So far, neither vehicle has been recovered.
Later that evening -- and down the road -- thieves broke into the service center of Jaguar of Naperville at about 9 p.m. to steal a 2016 Jaguar XJL, 2014 Range Rover Evoque, 2012 Range Rover Sport and a Ford Fusion, for which the model year is unknown.
The dealership, however, did not discover any vehicles were missing until a police officer found the Evoque abandoned on the side of the road an hour later.
After the police contacted the dealership about the vehicle, they found one of the windows of the overhead garage door in the service area had been smashed open and four vehicles were missing.
All those vehicles except the Ford Fusion have been recovered.
Cmdr. Louis Cammiso of the Naperville police said the two incidents last Tuesday may have been carried out in different manners but were so close together in time, the department suspects it could be the same group of people.
Police in the Chicago area are also searching for a ring of car thieves targeting luxury vehicles. Cammiso said they’ve identified the methods the thieves tend to use, who often take vehicles back to the city, but police still haven’t identified any groups responsible. He didn’t clarify if the Naperville thefts were connected to the car-theft ring.
Then in the afternoon of the following Friday, Jan. 27, a 2017 Jaguar F-Pace was stolen from the dealership after an employee pulled it up for a test drive. A thief jumped into the F-Pace and drove off. The driver of the stolen car has been the only culprit caught in connection to the crimes last week. He was a minor.
Daniel Loose, the general sales manager at Jaguar of Naperville, said the “increasing amount” of thefts in the area “is not the norm.”
“We instructed our employees not to be confrontational. If they do see something, just alert us,” Loose said. “Our owner has expressed very explicitly no one is to become a hero -- it’s only a car. Nobody’s life is worth an automobile.”
Similarly, Korallus told his employees to be alert but cautious: “You can replace the cars but not the coworkers,” he said.
The Chicago Tribune originally reported this story.
