The numbers aren’t pretty…and these barely scratch the surface.
- Slidell, Louisiana: $120,000
- Grapeland, Texas: $50,000
- Clifton Park, New York: $10,000+
- Detroit, Michigan: $70,000
- Weymouth, Massachusetts: $50,000+
What do all these cities have in common? In each one, a car dealership had tires stolen and these figures represent the value of the lost merchandise.
Do a search and you’ll find many news reports of the same thing happening across North America including Oklahoma, Maine, New Brunswick and Canada.
How Thieves Stole Tires and Rims at A Louisiana Dealership
In Slidell, experienced thieves arrived on the car lot in the dark and broke through locks, shut off alarms, disabled video surveillance, and even turned off the lights in the parking lot. The thieves stole 124 tires and rims and loaded them into a U-Haul. Employees found the cars on wooden blocks with lug nuts left behind.
It’s possible these thieves are not local because of the similarities of tire theft at other dealerships like the one in Grapeland as reported in the Palestine Herald-Press. In Grapeland, thieves took 60 tires from Cutshaw Chevrolet. This isn’t the first time it happened to the dealership. In 2015, thieves made off with $50,000 worth of tires and rims.
The Slidell dealership had video surveillance, but it was not being monitored by Stealth. In too many cases, a dealership depends on video surveillance cameras with no one keeping an eye on them. Why have cameras if no one’s watching? One of the news reports showed video footage of the suspects. It was so grainy it was even hard to make out the skin color.
What Can Dealerships Do to Help Prevent Tire Theft?
A dealership that works with an experienced live video monitoring company will likely have a better outcome. The company watches the dealership’s security cameras in real-time after hours. Trained operators can spot potential suspects before they commit the crime and call the police to report it.
The police department puts a higher priority on these calls and often responds while the suspects are still on the property. If the dealership in Slidell had used live video surveillance, the police would’ve had a better chance to catch those suspects. It took a couple of hours for the thieves to remove the tires and rims. It’s possible the police could have arrived before the suspects departed.
What about the fact the thieves disabled the cameras and turned off the lights? Again, an experienced video monitoring company could catch the thieves turning off the cameras and be able to identify them.
If the dealership had people monitoring the cameras, how would they be able to see in the dark? This is where thermal cameras come in handy. Thermal cameras can sense objects by the heat they radiate, so they can see things that the human eye and standard cameras cannot. This provides them clear images in daylight, darkness, shadows and bad weather.
Dealerships working with a company like Stealth will have multiple layers of protection in place: live monitoring, analytics, thermal imaging, and more. Stealth can create a customized dealership security
plan to provide yours with the most effective coverage for your needs. All for a savings up to 60% when compared to guards. To learn more, please contact us.
