Yesterday morning a gentlemen came into our dealership looking for a car. He wanted to look at one of the cars. He said he had good credit so he didn't want to fill out any paperwork. After the 2nd request he let us look at his drivers license. The salesman got up to get the keys to the car, and went with the customer to look at the car. The customer got into the car, the salesman handed him the keys. When he started the car, he put it into gear and drove off.
We called the Phoenix Police who had a car here within 3 minutes. Officer Monson did an excellent job finding out what happened and asking the right questions of us. After the person was gone with the car, we realized he had picked up the copy of his license and took it with him as he walked out of our office. I had given my cell phone number in case the car was recovered after hours. We gave our descriptions of the suspect, gave the officer the description of the car and the report was filed. This was about 10:30 in the morning. Around 4:00pm a call came to my phone from the Police department. They had located the car behind a small apartment complex less than a mile from our business and had three suspects in custody. We went to the scene, the officers there were very professional and pleasant. They had noticed a car in the parking lot with no license plate and had stopped to investigate. According to the suspects in custody, a person matching the description of the suspect had been there earlier, but had left. We didn't get our guy, but we got the car back undamaged and no worse for the wear.
This was the first auto theft like this we have had in over 20 years, so we talked about what happened, and how things could have been differently. Some changes have been made that will help in the future.
Thanks again Phoenix Police. I know that most stolen cars are recovered, but I don't remember one being recovered this quick.
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