Thieves raid Hayward car dealership, return for more
HAYWARD, Calif. - Surveillance video captured intruders breaking into a car dealership in Hayward.
One of the suspects is shown using a pickaxe to break open a lockbox just after midnight on Sunday at City Motors on Mission Boulevard.
"Took a couple shots at the lockbox, managed to break in, stick their hand in there, get all the keys," said General Manager Emilio Espinosa.
Within moments, one of the thieves smashes a 2018 Mercedes G-Wagon, worth $100,000, through the glass doors of the showroom.
"They blew out the doors! That was it," Espinosa said.
Thieves stole two other cars from the lot, a BMW X3 and a Honda Civic.
But they did not stop there.
Video shows Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies on scene inspecting the business at about 1 a.m. The sheriff’s office later determined the shop to be in the jurisdiction of the Hayward Police Department and called the shop owner.
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A red Pontiac was still in the showroom as the deputies left.
But a short while later, one of the thieves returned, activated the key fob to the Pontiac, and drove out the hole created earlier.
"They probably thought they weren’t going to come back. I mean, I would think the same thing. But still. They did come back and took the other car," said Espinosa.
Espinosa said several keys are missing, but all the affected locks have been changed.
The windows to the shop were boarded up on Monday.
Espinosa said he isn't upset at law enforcement, but rather the situation itself. This has been a scene repeated at dealerships across the Bay Area, with businesses almost powerless to stop them.
"They hit whatever they hit when they want to hit it," he said.
Espinosa doesn't have too much to say to the intruders.
"I really don't have a message, because they're not going to stop regardless, they don't get the message once they go to jail and come back out and keep doing it," he said.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@Fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan