MICHIGAN, USA —
Like a scene out of a movie, teenagers can steal cars out of dealerships in minutes.
Michigan State Police said this is not a new issue and there have been highly organized criminal rings for years stealing cars.
MSP said the crime rings will hire teenagers for a few hundred dollars to steal cars from dealerships or train yards.
The thefts can happen anywhere, but MSP said a lot of thefts happen at Dodge, GMC and Chevrolet dealerships.
"They pull the parts out of the vehicle," Lt. Rene Gonzalez, public information officer for the first district of Michigan State Police said. "They start selling the parts. That's why they're doing it, it's a car that's in demand."
Recently, there have been thefts in Adrian and Dundee. Gonzalez said he can't be sure, but the reason the thieves may be targeting those areas could be because there aren't as many police present.
Gonzalez said the teenagers hired are taught to locate keys inside the dealership or use a piece of technology that can copy key fobs for cars.
Once the cars are stolen, the cars are found abandoned after being sold or found during traffic stops.
Gonzalez said the dealerships won't fill cars up with a lot of gas, so once they are stolen, they may run out of gas. The cars will then be abandoned on the side of the road.
Thieves will try to alter the VIN or create a fake title and sell the cars for reduced prices online. Gonzalez said when people go to get the title transferred, they will be notified that it's a stolen car.
The person buying the car will be out of whatever money they spent since the car is taken back by authorities. Gonzalez said if someone is buying a car online, they should have the seller go to transfer the title with them and be aware of red flags, like a price that seems "too good to be true."
If MSP sees a stolen vehicle on the road, they will not pursue it.
"A lot of times it's young kids, they're reckless with these vehicles and we don't want them hurting somebody else," Gonzalez said. "So we're going to let that vehicle go and hopefully we can get to it later."
Gonzalez said right now there are a lot of ongoing investigations with stolen vehicles.
"We're not done with our work," Gonzalez said. "We're going to get an arrest and once we get that arrest, we're going to try and go farther and try to find the organization or the leaders."
WTOL 11 reached out to car dealerships in southeast Michigan that have experienced thefts, but none wanted to comment on the theft.
A salesperson said insurance will not pay full value for a vehicle unless it's totaled. If police get a stolen vehicle back, the dealership has to sell the vehicle at a discount if anyone is willing to buy it.