Stakeouts and surveillance: WRAL Investigates high-performance car thieves targeting Triangle dealerships

Approximately 700,000 vehicles are stolen each year in the U.S. Around 40% of those vehicles are stolen right off of car lots and that number's going up.

"They were driving around scouting us out. They knew where everything was," says Wayne Dubois, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Sport Durst. Two of his dealerships in Durham were hit back in March.

Dubois saw the heist play out from a series of security cameras, "As they pulled through here high speed they tried to run through the gates they got stuck up underneath the fence."

Once inside the gate, they went to the Mazda building, then across the street to another Sport Durst dealership. That's where the real targets were located. "They knew how to get to our keys, get to our key fobs," Dubois said, "Challengers, Chargers, that seems to be what they’re after. The high performance cars."

The thieves made off with four vehicles. Two were recovered, but totaled. The other two are still gone. Dubois says this was no teenage prank, "This was definitely not teenagers that were just out joyriding cars and having fun. They knew where they were going."

Sport Durst isn't alone. Just in our area, a dealership in Henderson was hit. A rare Camaro, a Cadillac Escalade and an Audi were taken. In Lillington, 10 cars valued over $600,000 where stolen from a Hiester dealership. The entire smash, grab and drive off operation took just 20 minutes.

FBI data shows car thefts targeting dealerships is soaring. They've almost tripled since 2018.

WRAL Investigates found a car theft ring linked to the Allison apartments at Fenton in Cary. Investigators got a search warrant after receiving a tip a high end vehicle stolen in Virginia was at the complex. Inside the suspect's apartment, police found a key scanner, several keys from high performance cars and a 3-D printer.

We also found a multi-state car theft ring that mainly targeted dealerships in the Southeast - had its epicenter in the Charlotte area - according to a federal indictment. Five people are charged with stealing cars like Bentleys, Land Rovers, Porsches and muscle cars from Chevy, Dodge and Ford. Investigators say the suspects would bring the cars back to the Charlotte area and resell them well below market value.

Dubois says the thefts are a major disruption to business and they're changing how Sport Durst does business. "We’re training our sales people, watch the keys. One of the things they’ll do is come out and act like they’re interested in the vehicle and they’ll swap keys with the salesperson," Dubois told WRAL Investigates. Another change is how they market their cars after getting some advice from police, according to Dubois, "They’re telling us by posting and advertising those on social media platforms that’s where they're finding where those cars are."

Dubois reminds us these aren't victimless crimes or just a simple write off for dealers. Bigger insurance premiums and security upgrades come at a cost. "It’s an expense  we’re going to have to take on, whether it’s our customers that are going to feel that or our employees, it all gets passed down to all of us," he explained.