Three car thieves orchestrated a massive nine-car heist from a North Spokane, Wash. dealership on Tuesday morning between two and five AM. The trio broke into the dealership office through a duct in the roof and rappelled in, grabbing 15 sets of keys before climbing back out. Over the course of the evening, the trio drove away with nine cars, valued at an estimated quarter of a million dollars, before the dealership re-opened on Tuesday morning.
The dealership, Northtown Auto Sales, features a giant inflatable dog on the roof and a street corner parking lot, as you’d expect from a used car lot anywhere in the U.S. The general manager of the lot said the doors to the dealer are all alarmed, there are video cameras outside and inside, and motion sensors in every room except the office they broke into. The criminals made it into and back out of the office without tripping any sensors, which explains why nobody was alerted to their presence. It took them four trips to the dealer to knock off all nine cars over the course of the night.
Video footage of the lot as the trio stole cars all night show two young people returning multiple times, one wearing a full-length fur coat, the other in a straw hat. Fran Anunar (19), and Heran Linfield (20), were arrested in connection with the incident. Dealer sales manager Johnny Arrotta was notified by Spokane police that the arrests were made on Wednesday, including the “same guy that was wearing the straw hat,” mentioning that cops recognized him because he was wearing the same thing he’d worn during the heist. Charges are pending against a third suspect.
When this kind of theft happens in a dealership, there is always reason to suspect an inside man. How did the thieves know about roof access, where the keys are kept, and how to avoid tripping the security system? A question I’m sure cops are asking right now as the investigation continues. The suspects are facing nine counts of vehicle theft and one count of commercial burglary.