Car dealerships, just like repair shops, have become popular targets for thieves. After all, they often have millions of dollars in inventory and the thieves can literally shop for whatever kind of ride they want or need. We’ve been warning that dealerships and shops need to beef up their security or suffer the consequences of the crime trend, but as one dealership in Georgia demonstrates, changes are coming too slowly to the industry.
The FTC is targeting car dealership scams.
As covered by local news station WSB, CarXoom, a car dealership in Cobb County, Georgia, has been hit by thieves repeatedly. Like what’s happened in the past, a recent break-in involved about 100 cars keys getting swiped from a key box in the dealership’s office. That allowed thieves to steal cars that night and return for more later.
This has become a common tactic for stealing cars from dealers, yet dealerships for the most part seem to think keeping the keys to their inventory in some flimsy box with a pathetic lock is sufficient. Obviously it isn’t and dealers are paying dearly for the lack of advanced security.
While CarXoom told the local news they were able to recover vehicles by using trackers, which they were smart to use those, it seems they and other dealers don’t want to upgrade key security to head off the problem earlier.
Management told WSB that rekeying and reprogramming fobs for the entire dealership’s inventory would be incredibly expensive and we believe it. A much cheaper and more effective route would’ve been to get a secure safe to store the keys, one that’s anchored down so it can’t be easily carted away.
In the meantime, CarXoom is looking to police for extra patrols. That’s not necessarily a bad move, but every dealership and repair shop should be taking their security measures to the next level or two.
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