OCALA, Fla. - – Employees at a car dealership in Ocala arrived at work Tuesday morning to the sight of four cars on bricks and their tires missing.
“These particular vehicles are hot,” sales consultant Matthew Hurd said. “They’re very nice cars and SUVs.”
Thieves stole an estimated $30,000 in tires from the Phillips Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership, with three 2018 Dodge Durangos and one 2018 Dodge Charger left propped on bricks.
“Everything is on the ground,” Hurd said. “It’s kind of like you’re bending the whole frame underneath so unfortunately, these vehicles are almost useless now.”
Hurd says this all happened as thunderstorms passed through Monday night, with crooks likely thinking nobody would be watching in the heavy rain.
The thieves also took wheels and caps, leaving lug nuts behind in the grass nearby.
“You’d have to kind of know what you’re looking for,” Hurd said. “You obviously need to know how to take the wheels off to be pretty quick to do the amount of vehicles as they did.”
Managers hope someone spots these tires in the area or on the road.
“The wheels themselves are all very unique so to see those wheels, they’re kind of noticeable,” Hurd said. “They only come on that particular vehicle.”