Thieves hit two Springfield car dealers leaving behind damaged showrooms and frustration
A pair of Springfield automotive dealerships were broken into in the past two weeks, with the general manager of one of them calling for strong punishments against the perpetrators who stole cars and ransacked much of his showroom.
The Springfield Police Department said that at 5:48 a.m. on Oct. 19, multiple suspects broke into Green Audi at 3881 Wabash Avenue, stealing six vehicles and a series of keys. Authorities think the suspects were from the St. Louis area. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department teamed up with Illinois State Police and SPD to track and recover the vehicles.
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Mylas Copeland, general manager of Green Audi, part of the sprawling Green automotive group said one of his employees notified him of the break-in.
"We had another employee that had arrived at the store; she walked into what appeared to be, upon physical inspection, a break-in of some sort," Copeland said. "She contacted her supervisor who contacted me, then I made the calls to the police and told everyone to clear the building."
Copeland said the damage included broken glass across much of the showroom, vandalized offices, and debris scattered throughout the premises. In addition, six cars were taken which Copeland said were recovered with minimal damage.
SPD spokesperson Sara Pickford said that ISP recovered one vehicle in Litchfield shortly after the theft. The other vehicles were found in the St. Louis area. She also said a vehicle stolen from a dealership in the St. Louis area had been left behind at Green.
The car dealer has stepped up security since the break-in, Copeland said. Measures include limiting access to vehicles and SPD has installed a Sky Watch police camera in the dealership parking lot.
Copeland is frustrated after the incident, saying that he isn't the only dealership in central Illinois dealing with thefts. While he noted that ISP has invested $10 million in grant funds to combat motor vehicle thefts across the state, he said that prosecutors need to have the ability to bring those who commit these crimes to justice.
"I think there needs to be a very strong message sent to these criminals who are not only breaking into dealerships but taking cars from homes," Copeland said. "Residents are nervous. These thieves are showing absolutely no regard for safety – the rate of speed that they are driving these cars down the highways, etc. – so when they are apprehended, I am hopeful that the state prosecutors and the courts are not lenient in what they're charged with and that the sentence is a very strong message."
Several days after the break-in at Green, another group of thieves hit Rehan Motors at 111 North Dirksen Parkway near Grandview, taking a 2019 Mercedes-Benz C-300 worth over $28,000 and a quartet of key fobs.
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said deputies were called to the dealership at 4:38 a.m. on Oct. 23. There they found six vehicles with engine lights on, lined up to leave the parking lot.
Thieves in a white Chrysler 300 and a blue Cadillac sedan put the cars in reverse colliding with each other and setting off a chain reaction. The suspects fled the vehicles while a Mercedes-Benz and a black Dodge Charger sped out of the parking lot towards Interstate 55 and eventually picked up the vehicles near the Chatham exit on I-55.
The pursuit of the suspects, a high-speed chase that reached over 128 mph, was terminated as the vehicles entered Montgomery County to the south. Deputies then returned to Rehan Motors to process the scene and eventually determined the suspects entered the dealership through a window.
No injuries were reported and there have been no arrests.
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Combined, Copeland said the losses at dealerships like Green range in the millions of dollars. Although they were fortunate not to lose any vehicles, he said the costs can be crippling if stolen vehicles aren't recovered.
"It adds up pretty quickly," Copeland said. "When you have the number of cars taken from the number of places that this is happening with, some people are getting them back, some have damage (and) some are not being recovered. It is a huge number."
Campbell said that over the past five years, they have received 490 reports of vehicle theft, with 80 such incidents being reported so far in 2023. With many of these incidents, Campbell said that people make the simple mistake of leaving their keys in the vehicle, with the sheriff recommending that people take the keys out and lock cars whenever they aren't using them.
In addition, many cases come about as a result of people loaning out their cars and not having them returned to their proper owners. Campbell said that people should ensure that they aren't loaning out cars to people who aren't in their direct family. He also said that if possible, people should invest in a GPS tracker for their vehicle to assist law enforcement in finding the car if it goes missing.
Statewide, ISP has recovered 290 vehicles that had been stolen or hijacked between July and September of this year, with 27 combined arrests for each of the two crimes. Their forensic laboratory has received 1,245 assignments related to stolen or hijacked vehicles and has also seized nine firearms during vehicle recoveries.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau, a non-profit that works to combat fraud and theft cases, also asks that people park in well-lit areas, use visible or audible devices like brake and wheel locks, alarms, window etching, and micro-dot marking and install an immobilizer like a kill switch or fuse cut-off.
The organization said that all of these measures work in concert with your car's built-in security system and will help to prevent a situation where you might have to pay more in insurance premiums.
Regardless of whether or not you happen to be the general manager of a prominent auto retail facility, Copeland says that people should keep a close eye on their vehicles and their businesses to ensure their safety.
"It can happen very quickly," Copeland said. "We want to make sure that people are being safe. That's not to have people live in fear, it's just to make sure that people are aware of what's going on around them."
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Car thieves hit Green Audi and Rehan Motors in Springfield
