What has been stolen at your store???

[PartsJD]

Your did say Weirdest thing right?

Back in the day when people could smoke in public, we had ash trays on the parts counter. These were nice big ceramic ashtrays from Toyota with the Toyota logo and "Oh What a Feeling" printed on them. Well one day we had a lady come in and wanted us to give her a Toyota ashtray. As we only had a couple that we were using (none for sale or give aways) we told her sorry but we didn't have any extras. Well needless to say, I walk up to the front counter a little later and sure enough there is a pile of cigarette butts and ashes all over the counter. She even stopped and talked to the GM on her way out holding the ashtray in her hands.

The other one I had wasn't as weird but was a little strange. I took over a store that was quite a mess and had very little room inside. So as we were cleaning up we had a few used tires that were in the way and we had a mobile tire rack sitting outside that didn't roll very well any more. So I moved these 6-10 used tires (no more than 2 the same size) to this rack outside, chained and locked. The outside area was fenced and locked also. The next morning - chain cut and all tires missing. Didn't really bother me much, saved me from having to scrape them later on down the road.

[69mach1]

We had a customer take a test drive in a new truck he stopped by a store and decided to rob it, funny thing about 3 days later the truck was parked in front of our doors with the keys and dealer plate

[Colin W]

We used to have a remote storage lot where we kept our overstock of new vehicles. One morning a couple of salesmen went to retrieve a new pickup but it wouldnt start. They came back to the dealership, got some booster cables then returned to the truck. When the hood was opened they discovered the engine and transmission missing. The thieves had used side cutters to cut all of the wires and lines, leaving a nightmare for the partsman (me) who had to order the replacement parts.

[Bruce Buick]

Arrived at the lot one morning to discover 4 vehicles up on cinder blocks and on the ground. It had snowed during the night and PREVIOUS to the tire theft. My painter followed the tire tracks to the fence and from the other side thru the neighborhood behind our store.
The police meet him in front of a house where the tire tracks went up the drive into a closed garage in the yard.
Last I heard the two who were responsible for the theft were working as part of a think-tank at one of the Big 3.

[ICEMAN]

We had a service cashier that would swap service discount coupons for cash and pocket the money. Hope it was worth getting fired for $5.

[jdub49]

Back about a million years ago, we had someone stealing carburetors from new cars in our storage lot. As if that wasn't bad enough, they were shoving the fuel line into the points window on the distributor. When a lot attendant would go to start the car, things got really interesting!

[flyboy]

After several thefts, vandals etc, we installed $7200 worth of security cameras around the parameter of our store.

Two weeks later, on a Monday morning we found every camera gone, neatly unbolted, mounts taken, and wires snipped. The ironic thing was the DP forgot to turn on the recorder.

[STEVEH]

Back in the 80's we came to work one morning
to find the dealership had been broken into.
They wheeled our torch's from the shop to the office and cut open the safe.

[AKTOYPM]

Back when Ford/Firestone had the tire recall we had stacks of tires with 1" holes drilled in the sides of them.
Two lot jocks thought "hey these are perfectly good tires" took a set to the tire shop down the street and were sorely mistaken.
Gm found out and that was the end of them.
Funny thing is that a few months later a bulletin came out that you were now supposed to slice large gash into them because people were patching the 1" holes.

[Mike Nicholes]

Probably not a very "productive" topic, but interesting nontheless. Out of some 1700+ security audits on dealerships over the past 39 years (really, no kidding) I have found "theft" to only exist in about 5% of the cases; most of the "shortages" are paperflow and/or accounting and/or input errors; Having said that..............

The type and scope of "theft" cases can stagger the mind. At the dealership level they run from a High of millions; does anyone remember Long Chevrolet in Chicago? to 13.5 million out of a PDC some 20 years ago.

Vigilance and accountability usually stiffle most of it. I am not referring to petty larceny where some misbegotten fool swipes a battery or a hose. As one person said, and I wish I knew who it was" "When you check up, they shape up".

Interesting topic to be sure; thanks for the laughs folks.

Mike Nicholes