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Stealing Eight Corvettes from the Factory Can Pay “Big.” Or Not.
Memo to car thieves: Even if you figure out the stealing part, you may need to work on the hiding part.
This advice might have helped Deantae Walker, 21, who apparently traveled from his home in Westland, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, to Chevrolet’s Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky. According to Louisville TV station WHAS, Walker, a suspect in the theft of not one, not two, but eight new Corvettes from the Bowling Green plant Saturday night, was arrested after a foot chase by the Bowling Green Police Department. According to the police report, the thieves—and yes, that’s plural—cut through the fence around a back lot and apparently drove what police say were $1.2 million worth of cars out of the hole.
The theft was discovered when an officer with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office was patrolling the parking lot of a Bowling Green apartment complex when he noticed a new, maroon Corvette parked in the lot, window sticker in place. He figured it looked kind of stolen, and he had the Bowling Green police contact plant security to see if they were missing a new, $160,000 car. (This likely would’ve been a nicely optioned Z06 based on the price reference—it was initially rumored that a new ZR1 was among those stolen, but a Chevrolet spokesman has confirmed that is not the case.)
They performed an inventory and said why yes, now that you mention it, we are, and that car is one of them. From there on, the story gets even stranger. According to WHAS, two of the suspects visited the office of an auto transport company and arranged for the immediate transport of a 2017 Corvette to Michigan. When the driver arrived at the pickup location, a Lowe’s Home Improvement parking lot, he was told by a man who WHAS identified as Walker that instead of a 2017 Corvette, he was to transport three new 2025 Corvettes, and the sooner the better.
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The transport driver “said the men were rushing him while he was loading the vehicles, and he noticed they had damage on the bottom of them,” according to the WHAS story. “He told police the transaction felt ‘weird.’”
Police located Walker in the parking lot, and he ran, but not fast enough. According to Lexington TV station WLEX, Walker “tripped and fell and, as a result, was placed into handcuffs.” Another suspect, driving a Jeep with Ohio tags, escaped. It’s unknown whether he has been apprehended. Apparently, most of the other stolen Corvettes were also found in nearby apartment parking lots. All were recovered.
At last report, Walker was in jail, facing charges of third-degree fleeing or evading police, resisting police, first-degree criminal mischief, and three counts of receiving stolen property worth $10,000 or more.
As quoted by WHAS, when he made it to Warren County Regional Jail, Walker, who refused to speak to the arresting police, made this comment, apparently not on the advice of an attorney: “If I would have made it back to Michigan, I would have been paid big.”
The investigation is ongoing.
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yo DW –
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when you’re HOT, you’re HOT , …
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and if ya woulda … , and woulda … – then you’re NOT .
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( apologies to jerry reed )
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PS – congrats to the local PD – looks like they know HOT when they see it .
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PPS – txs for yet another great Bowling Green Corvette sink hole story .
“Damage to the bottom of them” Ouch, GM may have to scrap these. Also, why are the keys in the cars? And, has GM BGAP ever heard of security cameras and live monitoring, or a laser grid on the fence? This guy may not be Danny Ocean, but GM made this way too easy. Next time, get a fleet of U-haul trucks and car carriers, and put a cover on the stolen merch!
They won’t be scrapped.
I’m sure they have the sort of security systems you mention, but there’s always a weak link. Bet the guy who was supposed to be watching the cameras dozed off.
I’m thinking that Onstar would have easily reported the cars location regardless.
Gas Dodge Chargers in short supply? GM, get a warehouse with cameras and some Belgian Malinois.
The thieves reportedly got caught when one of their walkers wheels got caught in a sewer grate and the other thief had to stop to change his Depends. They were going to fence them at the Shady Acres retirement home back in Michigan.
@Old Man in Diapers, are you confessing to be the one who got away in the Jeep with Ohio tags? You seem to have a lot of very specific information. 💀
You never heard a story of car thieves stealing a load of brand new Vega’s. Or Chevettes.
Likely because the last Vega rolled off the line nearly 50 years ago and the last Chevette was 40 years. Are you stuck in 1978 or something?
Old saying – if you’re going to steal horses, steal thoroughbreds.
You will notice Walker was NOT charged with stealing the Corvettes, just receiving stolen property!!!!!! If you are not caught “in the act of stealing the car” the penalty is mild — yes it pays to steal cars. A fellow in our our car club had his very nice low mileage 1960’s car stolen. He saw some parts in Craigs list. He called the police who took three days to go to the place selling his “chopped up” car!!!!!!!!! The “thief” got a few months for “possession of stolen property”. Only thing recovered was one door!!!!!! Basically you are on your own to prevent car theft. Yes insurance covers it, but have you checked you insurance premiums lately!!!! Good grief.
Does no one in this great nation even want to make movies any more?
There should be a country ballad and half a dozen script treatments being shopped around by now.
The movie ” Gone in 60 seconds…” comes to mind… 😉
If DW and his buddies had more help and were better organized it could easily have been ’60 gone in seconds’ from what I’m seein’ here re GM security……..just sayin’
Heard a story a few years ago about a guy in my town who had his newer truck stolen. He saw a guy driving it a day later. Followed him to an apartment building and called the cops. Because it was non emergency they wouldn’t come out right away. He ended up getting in it and drove to the cop shop a mile down the road. Told the cops out front on smoke break to not worry about it. He got it handled. Pretty sad when $50K stolen vehicle is not a big deal. Even if caught the guy would probably get a slap on the hand. My brothers ex girlfriend had a ragtop roadrunner back in the eighties. It got stolen and they drove around looking for it. Spotted it parked on a street few miles away and got it back. My wife’s monty SS was stolen at chuckie cheese in the middle of the day. Got it back after insurance paid $4k to fix it. I have a hidden battery disconnect in my hot rod just to slow thieves down