Over $200,000 worth of wheels and tires went missing overnight from 48 cars at Peltier Chevrolet in Tyler, Texas, reports Automotive News. That’s a lot of wheels! Tyler Police Department Public Information Officer Don Martin told Automotive News that they believe the heist only took around four hours.
The wheels were pilfered off vehicles in Peltier’s inventory lot, where vehicles were left on blocks with their lugnuts strewn all over the ground.
Thieves cut the locks to Peltier’s back lot, disabled the light system, and went to town. Surveillance video shows a Penske box truck pulling in at 1:22 a.m., but it was so dark that they were unable to determine how many suspects were involved.
Most of the stolen wheels were 20" or 22" wheels, however, Automotive News notes that some of the wheels taken from Camaros and Traverses were rather ordinary. I guess it was dark back there for the thieves, too.
Peltier Chevrolet General Manager David Bates estimates that the stolen wheels and tires alone were worth between $200,000 to $250,ooo, although he told Automotive News that the dealership was still calculating their exact losses. Several cars had been damaged when they were left up on blocks as well.
This isn’t the first time a large number of wheels has been stolen overnight from a dealership in Texas, either. Another Tyler dealership, Wagner Cadillac, found twenty of its cars sans wheels in 2014, writes local news station KLTV. At least 14 similar incidents have happened across Texas since 2014, and authorities told KLTV that they believe these thefts are the work of a professional crime ring.