MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) – The burned-out shell of a 2004 purple Pontiac GTO lies tucked away in the corner of a used auto dealership junkyard, its purple leather-based interior eaten away by flames and its tailor made motor and transmission gone.
“It was a lovely device. A quite attractive piece of automotive heritage,” Bargains on Wheels II Gross sales Supervisor Eric Duncan stated.
The automobile identification number experienced been eradicated, but Duncan says it’s unmistakable even just after staying ruined by the fire.
“It had the exact exhaust and Kooks headers on it. Individuals are customized for that car,” Duncan said. “The GTO is a extremely uncommon bird anyways. It’s just a pretty sought-just after car or truck to appear by with that motor-transmission combo.”
Surveillance footage displays the car or truck staying towed off the Discounts on Wheels II car or truck lot in Moncks Corner on June 6 around 5 p.m. The car or truck dealership named the Berkeley county Sheriff’s Office to report the vehicle stolen.
Eleven days afterwards, Berkeley County deputies uncovered it fully engulfed in flames around Bethel Road and Fishermans Drive in St. Stephen.
Duncan states the automobile was value $12,000, but the engine areas, which have been taken out prior to the car caught hearth, could market for all over $6,000.
He thinks the car or truck was stolen with the intent of providing those people components on the black sector.
If stealing a car less than surveillance at 5 p.m. looks unusual, which is due to the fact the men and women who picked up the vehicle did not know they were being thieving it.
The tow truck organization dependable for getting the car is KT Towing and Recovery. A corporation consultant mentioned they been given a connect with to select up a automobile and drop it off someplace and that’s what they did.
The consultant who took the contact states he has no strategy who is who when they get identified as. He claims the gentleman who called him explained to the enterprise that he had pushed the motor vehicle on to the auto lot.
Duncan states they use towing solutions all the time and there’s normally some type of check out to make confident the man or woman buying the tow owns the car or truck. He says seeing his car get taken away by a genuine business is stunning.
“It was quite upsetting. It is a little something you in no way would assume would come about and when we saw the movie our prompt reaction is why are they taking our auto,” Duncan stated. “It’s unbelievable that that could take place. That someone can randomly phone and say, ‘Oh, my car broke down.’ There was a buyer’s guidebook in the window, no tags on the motor vehicle, the vehicle was locked, the e-brake was on and they nevertheless continue to get the motor vehicle.”
The KT Towing agent claims the driver was new and ought to have picked up on the suspicious instances. Nonetheless, he says regulation enforcement investigated the driver and did not obtain him to be colluding with the particular person who named for the tow.
He goes on to say they get hundreds of calls a week for tows and do not normally get proof of possession. He says most of the time folks will call about their car breaking down at a company and request to have it towed to their homes. He suggests that is just how the towing organization operates.
Duncan suggests he asked legislation enforcement if they could push rates.
“We ended up instructed stupidity was not a crime on account of the tow truck driver staying new,” Duncan explained. “We have been informed we have to use an attorney. But once again, that charges funds and we are a small enterprise. We have struggled by just like every person else.”
Discounts on Wheels II has safety cameras, but Duncan is involved that if they do not catch the people today responsible, this tactic could be utilised somewhere else.
“What if yet another small business doesn’t have cameras and tow vans are just rolling up having people’s vehicles and they have no notion in which their car went?” Duncan stated. “The only cause we found out they took our motor vehicle is for the reason that we have cameras. So, it’s just one particular of those things where no a person can give us a legitimate rationale as to why this tow truck corporation took our vehicle.”
Quite a few other tow truck organizations claimed they don’t necessarily require proof of possession but do often get suspicious phone calls and glimpse for purple flags ahead of agreeing to a tow.
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