Clever thieves figured out how to break into an auto dealership undetected and drive off with four $75,000 SUVs Monday morning.
The burglars slipped past motion detectors at the Horton Automotive dealership in Monroe and somehow disabled the signal from on-board security systems.
"These guys were very professional," dealership owner Bruce Kelly told the AJC. "This was very thorough. They've probably been planning this for a while."
The thieves hurdled a barbwire fence, broke into a back door, then waltzed past the motion detectors to the box where the car keys to $4.3 million worth of vehicles are kept, Kelly said. They selected the keys for the four most valuable vehicles on the lot -- a red, a white and two black Cadillac Escalades -- then drove off with them.
Soon after 6 a.m., a witness spotted four Escalades in a row about 10 miles away, on Ga. 138, said Maj. R.V. Watts of the Monroe Police Department.
"My suspicion would be that [they were] probably headed back to the Atlanta area," he said. "We're just trying to figure out how they did what they did."
Kelly said there is no evidence yet that the burglars disabled the motion detection system and that the alarm company said it was operating until around 7:30 a.m., when the first employees arrived and turned it off.
An hour passed before anyone noticed something was wrong.
"Somebody walked in and said, ‘What did you all do with your Escalades?' " Kelly said, adding that he could tell by the tone of voice that it wasn't a joke.
They immediately called GM's OnStar security network, so authorities could trigger the anti-theft and tracking system. But the system couldn't find the Escalades. Either the thieves knew how to remove the OnStar devices without triggering backup alarms, he said, or they temporarily disabled the devices by hiding in a deep parking deck.
Kelly hopes other witnesses saw the vehicles, which were headed toward Conyers.
The SUVs were insured, Kelly said, "but with pretty high deductibles."
Anyone with information about the crime can call the Monroe Police Department at 770-267-7576.
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