A Nanaimo auto shop owner says car thieves smashed through garage doors at the business as they made off with two customer vehicles early Tuesday.
Kevin Goldsbury, the owner of Nanaimo Midas on Island Highway, says the thieves struck at around 3:30 to 4:30 a.m.
After apparently throwing a rock through the window to gain access to the garage, the thieves found keys for two customer cars — a Ford F-350 and a Subaru which were on hoists, he said.
The thieves then would have had to reverse the vehicles off the hoists before smashing through the garage doors, Goldbury said.
Security cameras facing the parking lot then caught the stolen vehicles fleeing the garage in a type of theft the shop owner said he’s never seen before.
“It’s kind of amazing but what do you say? It’s hard to defend against stuff like that,” he said. “You just assume they’re pretty safe in there but you never think they’d just go through the doors.”
The damage to the garage doors is extensive and the estimated time it’ll take to repair them is not yet known, Goldsbury said.
“It’s like out of a movie scene, like I’ve never seen anything like this before. Incredible,” said Assistant Manager Mike Rovere.
The business is still trying to figure out how to secure the building Tuesday night but will be adding video cameras on the inside of the garage as well as additional cameras outside.
Nanaimo RCMP confirmed Tuesday that the stolen cars are:
- a white 2019 Ford F-350 with no licence plate attached
- a 2009 black Subaru Forrester with B.C. licence plate LF161C
Both vehicles would have sustained “significant rear-end damage” from being driver through the bay doors backwards, RCMP said.
Mounties are investigating the theft and are asking anyone with information to call them at 250-754-2345.
CHEK News
