When employees of Northtown Auto Sales in Spokane, Washington came into work on Tuesday, they noticed that someone had cut a hole in their ceiling. They also noticed that nine of their cars were gone.
According to KREM, the cars were allegedly stolen as part of a Mission: Impossible-style heist in which thieves rappelled into the building, grabbed sets of car keys, then drove off with nine vehicles.
“They had knocked through two layers basically of a vent to get into the office,” explained General Manager Nick Arrotta to KREM. “One person came in, repelled down through the roof, grabbed 15 sets of keys, repelled back up the roof and then he stole a minivan. So, it was a pretty thought-out process. You know he didn’t take a sports car for the first one."
In Arrotta’s telling, the thief got into his newly stolen minivan with his many sets of keys, then ventured out to pick up more thieves. Once they were collected in the minivan, he drove back to the auto dealer and dropped them off so they could steal cars with the stolen keys. This process, Arrotta says, continued for more than three hours.
“We’re pretty numb to petty theft, but when they show up and take nine cars and you’ve got a quarter million dollars worth of inventory missing, now you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Arrotta continued. “Oh my gosh” feels like an understatement, but I do understand the concern.
Police say they’ve apprehended one suspect in the robbery and recovered some of the stolen cars, though they’re not sharing any details. For Arrotta, the robbery taught him not only to be more careful with his keys, but that his guard dog isn’t what he used to be. “He isn’t doing his job,” Arrotta said to KREM. “He is too well fed or something.”
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