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Thieves crash stolen car moments after heist from auto shop in Baton Rouge

5 years 7 months 4 weeks ago Monday, August 20 2018 Aug 20, 2018 August 20, 2018 4:59 PM August 20, 2018 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Thieves wrecked two stolen vehicles, one as they drove it from an auto body shop and car lot over the weekend.

Security video shared with WBRZ shows thieves rummaging around the business on Florida Boulevard. Owners said the thieves - who appear young, perhaps in their late teens - stole keys to some cars on the lot and drove off with four of them in two nights.

The video showed the driver crashing a white 2007 Mazda CX9 as he pulled out of the parking lot of the business early Saturday morning. The driver pulled into the path of a truck, was hit and then jumped from the moving vehicle. The vehicle appeared to roll across traffic and possibly hit a second oncoming vehicle.

Two more vehicles were stolen that night. One was a brown 2009 Buick Enclave which is still missing. The other was a black 2008 BMW 750li which a thief crashed into a nearby house according to the business owners.

The thieves returned Sunday night to steal a blue 2005 Jaguar S-Type.

"This is an ongoing issue," said manager Razan Alsalameh. The business, Fares Motor Company on Florida near N. Foster, has been the target of thieves dozens of times in the past year. Two other vehicles were also stolen off the lot about a year and half ago she said.

Alsalameh said people keep cutting holes in their fence to enter the property and have even stolen the surveillance cameras mounted on the building. Management stopped locking the doors on vehicles parked in their shop after thieves routinely smashed the windows to steal batteries and radios.

Alsalameh said the security alarm was turned off this weekend because she was having so many burglaries.

"When the police come and it looks like nothing is going on they write it up as a false alarm. We've already been billed thousands of dollars by the police department," she said.

Police are investigating the latest heist which happened early Saturday morning. Owners showed video of the burglary beginning at 2:30 a.m. and they said thieves rummaged around for as many as three hours.

> CLICK HERE to watch security video of the thieves crashing the vehicle

> CLICK HERE to see video of one suspected burglars rummaging through the business

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