Perry investigates rash of stolen vehicles

Over the past couple of weeks, local car dealerships have had several vehicles stolen from their lots. Vehicles were stolen from Perry Ford, Hamby Automotive and Jeff Smith Automotive. Perry Ford had alone eight vehicles stolen last weekend.

Perry Police Captain Heath Dykes said after reports were filed by Perry Ford, the investigation led to finding two vehicles stolen from Jeff Smith Automotive and one from Hamby Automotive.

“I have never seen that many vehicles stolen at one time (referring to Perry Ford incident),” said Dykes. “We were able to recover two vehicles, both out of Miami, Florida. One of the vehicles was actually involved in a chase and wrecked.”

He said the motives were different between Perry Ford and Hamby and Smith. The suspects broke into Perry Ford by breaking a window and gained access to the key box. Mark Hamby, owner of Hamby Automotive, shared that the suspects who stole the vehicle from his dealership and Jeff Smith’s dealership did it in person.

“Two guys came to our dealership,” said Smith. “One of them got the salesman’s attention while the other swapped the key off the key ring. When talking with the Perry Police, they’ve hit Waycross, Georgia, and all over the state. We were not able to track the vehicle due to the suspects disabling the OnStar feature that has global positioning satellite.”

Hamby said the last time he had a vehicle stolen from him was in 2004. He said they plan to change how they handle their keys by securing them with a zip tie or a steal-like rope. Anyone with information on these cases is asked to contact Perry Police Detective Lt. Ken Ezell at (478) 338-0255 or ken.ezell@perry-ga.gov.

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