Have you seen a 2013 Dodge Ram 1500 in your neighbourhood in the past couple of days?
It may belong to Black Creek Motors.
The Vancouver Island pre-owned vehicle dealership located between Courtenay and Campbell River fell victim to thieves early Sunday morning.
The culprits broke into the lot, disabled the steering lock on the pickup, then hooked it up to another truck and towed it off the property. The two trucks were seen heading north on Highway 19A.
Black Creek Motors owner Doug MacMillan said the truck was bought at an auction a couple of months ago.
“It was just a truck I bought, that was on the lot for sale,” he said. “They pulled up in front of it, somehow went in and broke the ignition, I guess - I saw the lights flash - they broke the ignition so they could turn the steering wheel, then towed it away, northbound.”
MacMillan has checked his logbook to see if there was any spike in interest in recent weeks, but has come up empty.
“Nothing at all,” he said. “I’ve been looking through (records) from recent days to see who was looking at it but there’s nothing that (jumps out).”
He said while the video shows the truck being towed away, the angle was not good enough to pick up the licence plate of the truck that was doing the towing.
“You know, video cameras, unless it is right close, they are terrible at night, or from far away. I have a mechanic shop across the street and I have video there too, but it seems to have been down at the time.”
MacMillan has opened a file with the RCMP but he is not hopeful.
This is not the first time Black Creek Motors has been hit by car thieves in recent months.
“This is the second time this year,” said MacMillan. “(The other one) was an SUV and someone broke into the office, stole all the keys, found the keys that belonged to that car, threw the rest of the keys on the ground and drove off. It was found in Campbell River. It looked like (someone) just needed a ride home.”
MacMillan has owned Black Creek Motors for about six years. The first five were theft-free.
“This is something new,” he said. “It’s not an easy business and losing cars makes it hard. I have a high insurance deductible, so I won’t even get any insurance money on this.”
The Record has reached out to the RCMP for comment.
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terry.farrell@blackpress.ca
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