Yahoo Autos Florida Man Arrested After Registering Porsche 930 Turbo Stolen From Museum, Police Say
A Florida man was arrested on fraud charges in July in the case of a stolen 1977 Porsche 911 Turbo. The car was taken from the Sarasota Classic Car Museum back in June, and the man allegedly used the VIN number from another vintage 911 out of a California salvage yard to register the car, court documents show.
Police responded to the Sarasota Classic Car Museum after the burglary alarm was tripped during the early morning of June 14, according to police arrest records. The officers were unable to make contact with a museum employee at that time and initially determined that the building was secure. It surely wasn't, however, as the officers would return later that morning to find pry marks on one of the doorways, as well as an open section of fencing. Inside the museum, seven vehicles had been moved out of the way of the Porsche, which was missing. The robbery suspect, who police say is currently unknown, was able to fill the car with fuel found on site and used the keys stored inside the driver’s footwell to simply drive the car out of the collection.
The 911 Turbo in question is an early 3.0-liter example, which is highly sought after among collectors. While the later 3.3-liter Turbos are really the performance icons in the 930 family, Porsche built some 15,000 fewer cars with the smaller motor. The museum values the car in the neighborhood of $250,000.
Police were later able to briefly locate the 930 on surveillance footage, unable to make much headway beyond that. Officers ultimately received an anonymous tip a few days later stating that Daniel Boyce, 36, had been seen with a brown Porsche at an unnamed local warehouse. The Sarasota Police Department worked alongside the Hillsborough and Manatee County Sheriffs, as well as a Sarasota County Tax Collector supervisor to try and locate the Widowmaker. It was through this collaboration that officials were able to determine that Boyce allegedly registered a brown Porsche 911 under a company called Triton Engineering LLC on June 21. The VIN associated with that registration belonged to a 1976 Porsche 911 owned by a California salvage yard, which had been wrecked 23 years prior. A Maine bill of sale, an odometer verification letter, and an approval letter from Triton Engineering used in the registration process were all allegedly fraudulent.
Boyce was arrested on July 21 for failing to appear in court for a Grand Theft Auto charge in Sarasota County. A search warrant issued for his phone at that time allegedly led officers to photos of the stolen Turbo inside a storage unit, along with the unit number and code. The 911 was located and recovered with that information. Boyce was then hit with a felony charge of scheming to defraud (over $50,000) on July 26 and is otherwise "a person of interest" in the robbery, police say. He is currently being held without bond at the Sarasota County Jail.
More charges may be forthcoming, but Boyce is currently scheduled for arraignment on September 22.
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