Home » Car dealership loses $20K in Car Break-ins

Car dealership loses $20K in Car Break-ins

Posted by Norm Charney on Apr 14, 2015

When criminals strike your car dealership, do you think offering a reward will return the loss or guarantee a happy ending?

A reward for car break-ins is not crime prevention.

Such is the case for a Myrtle Beach (SC) car dealer this month. When employees appeared on the lot on a Monday morning, ready to sell cars, they discovered ten severely damaged vehicles. Some had shattered windows; broken glass was everywhere. Others were up on blocks with their wheels gone. The loss that day totaled $20,000.

As bad as this discovery was for him and his business, it was not a singular experience, unfortunately. He’d been hit only months before, in August 2014. That time, a perpetrator shattered the windows of three cars in his lot.

Only a month ago, police were summoned because a man dressed in black was breaking into cars. Although police were unable to chase down the suspect, they did scare him off before he could steal.

This latest incident provided the owner with no helpful evidence. He did what he has done in the past and filed yet another police report. The owner also offered a $3000 reward to the public.

Because his dealership is located on a major, well-traveled road, the owner actually said that he hopes that, if his lot is invaded yet again, someone will happen to notice and call in a report.

The dealership has had three car break-ins in the last several months and keeps offering a reward. But it’s clearly not working.

This dealership is not a client of Stealth Monitoring. Stealth Monitoring can demonstrate how the use of proactive live video monitoring could deter crime and car break-ins from your dealership. Trained Stealth operators can activate alarms and call the police when they see intruders … often before they steal cars and parts. Contact us for information on real crime prevention that works.