A band of thieves broke into a used luxury car dealership in Evanston earlier this week and reportedly stole 14 vehicles valued collectively at almost $1 million, and the co-owner said Wednesday he is still astounded by the brazen crime.
“It sucks,” said Sam Mustafa, co-owner of The Auto Barn Collection car dealership, at 1910 Greenwood St.. “This isn’t real. This is crazy. I’m still in shock with my showroom being empty.”
According to Evanston police, thieves broke a window to gain entry into the dealership at around 2 a.m. Monday, then broke into an office safe where keys for the luxury vehicles were kept. Authorities said the crime was captured on security video, which shows six people wearing hooded shirts and masks breaking into the dealership through a front window, ripping an alarm off a wall then calmly driving off in the vehicles.
The criminals returned to the dealership three times that early morning and, Mustafa said, got 14 vehicles: a blue 2019 Audi A7, a black 2016 Audi A7, a black 2017 Mercedes AMG, two black 2015 Mercedes S550s, a black 2020 BMW X3, a white 2018 Maserati Levante, a white 2019 Audi Q8, a white 2018 Dodge Durango, a red 2018 Porsche Cayman, a black 2017 Mercedes S550, a gray 2017 Porsche Panamera, a white 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee and a white 2013 Bentley GTC.
Mustafa said the combined value of the vehicles is around $932,000. He said the most expensive car was the Bentley, which he said was worth $102,000.
“We’re a small business,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s going to take several months to rebound from this.”
Police said they are investigating the crime and said they believe it was well planned. As of Wednesday, police said no arrests have been made.
“There’s elements of this incident that would lend itself to it being more than a ‘smash and grab,’ ” said Evanston police Cmdr. Ryan Glew. “We are looking at a number of leads determining if someone that was there before and had knowledge of the area, or the facility, that they might have been involved. Right now, the investigation is open, but I wouldn’t characterize that we have a suspicion that it was an ‘inside job.’ “
He also said Evanston police are working with a regional task force that has been investigating vehicle thefts across Chicago and the suburbs, and that while many times stolen vehicles are used in other crimes, like robberies and drive-by shootings, the Auto Barn thefts appear to be different.
“If we start locating these cars, we know it’s more consistent with the motives for most of these incidents,” Glew said. “If the vehicles do not turn up in that fashion that would indicate the cars were stolen for the cars themselves, not necessarily to be used in other crimes.”
The auto thefts Monday follow a recent uptick in stolen vehicles reported in Evanston since the start of the year. There were 13 reported motor vehicle thefts in Evanston in January compared with eight in January 2021, Glew previously told Pioneer Press.
Last month, there were at least eight reported vehicle thefts, according to published police reports. Evanston police issued a public advisory calling for people to not leave their running vehicles unattended, and not leave the keys inside even when parked.
“It appears that a lot of this is a crime of opportunity,” Glew said last month. “That is a trend that is over the entire Chicagoland area.”
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Mustafa said he expects that insurance will cover much of the loss from the theft at his dealership, but he also bristles when he hears these kinds of incidents described as a “victimless crime.”
“I hate hearing that,” he said. “It’s not as simple as insurance paying out and life goes on.”
He said insurance may not fully cover this loss.
“There’s a victim. People are left holding the bill. That’s exactly what happened,” the dealership co-owner said.
Brian L. Cox is a freelancer.