- A Chicago-based group of nine teenagers stole nine SUVs worth over $500,000 from a Jaguar-Land Rover dealership in Waukesha, Wisconsin
- Officials were able to recover six of the nine cars – most of them from Chicago
- A 17-year-old unidentified boy was arrested by police and charged
A group of Chicago teenagers who organized a carjacking at a Range Rover dealership and made off with vehicles are being hunted by police officers.
Nine teenagers carried out the robbery at a Jaguar Land Rover dealership in Waukesha and were able to steal nine luxury cars on February 18, reportedly worth over $500,000.
The suspects broke into the dealership around 6 a.m., found the keys and then activated the key fobs to find the cars, which they then stole, according to Waukesha Police Capt. Dan Baumann.
CCTV footage from inside the car dealership shows four of the youths, all dressed in black, with masks and headgear, storming into the shop.
A group of nine Chicago teenagers committed the robbery of a Jaguar Land Rover dealership in Waukesha on Feb. 18, stealing the luxury cars reportedly worth more than $500,000
CCTV footage from inside the car dealership shows four of the nine youths, all dressed in black, with masks and headgear, storming into the shop
“A stolen vehicle, a minivan, comes into the dealership. They open the service door and nine subjects went there and looked for keys.
“One person finds out where the keys were hidden and then starts giving them to his friend,” Baumann told WISN12.
Officials said eight of the vehicles belonged to the dealer, but the ninth was a customer car.
The footage shows one of the thieves quickly ramming a white car back into a glass garage door.
The video then shows the robbers driving the luxury cars out of the dealership and onto a highway in a film-like formation.
At the end you see the police pursuing the thieves in a high-speed chase on Interstate 94.
The footage shows one of the thieves quickly ramming a white car back into a glass garage door
The video then shows the robbers driving the luxury cars out of the dealership and onto a highway in a movie-like queue
At the end you see the police pursuing the thieves in a high-speed chase on Interstate 94
Waukesha Police Capt. Dan Baumann believes the raid was strategic and most likely professional
One of the suspects, an unidentified 17-year-old boy, was arrested the same day in a village called Pleasant Prairie after the stolen vehicle he was driving crashed on the highway during the chase.
He is being held in the Waukesha County Jail on $50,000 bond and is facing charges of burglary, theft and criminal damage to property.
So far, officers have recovered six of the nine stolen vehicles – four in the city of Chicago, one in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield and one in Wisconsin.
Baumann believes the robbery was strategic and most likely professional. He continued, “We believe this is an organized criminal group of teenagers from the Chicago area.”
This wasn't just a group of kids who just decided to stay up late one night playing video games and saying, “Hey, let's see if we can travel nine two hours away to commit crimes.” “
“Because things like this don’t normally happen.”
Officers are still investigating the case and trying to identify the other eight suspects.