Authorities in Utah captured the three fugitive executives of Legacy Auto Sales and recovered some of the 81 cars stolen from their dealership as part of a plan to auction them off for personal profit.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Police apprehended comptroller Rachel Fait and general manager Rick Covello in Utah, dealership owner Allen Patch turned himself in to Nebraska cops after the others were captured. The three were in the middle of executing a brazen plan which began last Saturday, when they began quietly loading car haulers with inventory from their own dealership in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and shipping the cars west. The plan was to claim the cars were fully owned by the dealership, which was in the midst of closing down, and selling the cars through auction houses and direct to other dealers. The problem with the plan was that the cars, with an estimated value of $2.5 million, were owned by the financing arms of the respective automakers.
The dealership, and each of the suspects individually, had been slowly getting into financial trouble and the heist was a desperate attempt to cash out before the whole business went under. All three previously law abiding citizens are awaiting arraignment on multiple charges. This is the part where we normally make a joke about the whole situation, but this story is actually just a somber commentary on the state of things when previously successful business associates resort to this kind of nonsense when pushed to the brink. [Salt Lake Trib]