Roush Headquarters Thefts Lead To Huge Bust

Thieves have hit Roush headquarters in Allen Park, Michigan multiple times, but authorities have followed leads and believe they just busted the theft ring responsible. While this seems like a major victory, and we’re sure it helps Roush breathe a sigh of relief, more busts like this one will be needed to even start to bring the car theft epidemic under control.

Two Corvette senior managers are out.

The FBI is being credited with tracking down and busting the car theft ring responsible for the Roush heists and so many others, reports The Detroit News. According to the report, the FBI believes the theft ring has been swiping vehicles all over the Midwest and South.

To track down this sophisticated organized crime operation and gather evidence, the FBI broke out all kinds of gadgets, although all the methods and such understandably aren’t spelled out in the report. But the extent agents had to go to catch these thieves shows this wasn’t just some kids boosting cars for fun.

One of the clues which helped lead to the alleged kingpin of the theft ring was a stolen Roush F-150, a rare and therefore distinct ride, which was tracked to a garage in Milwaukee. Digging into that discovery, the FBI was able to uncover the depth and breadth of the organization behind the truck’s theft.

That’s when the FBI realized the extent of theft being committed by the organization was huge, far larger than agents initially suspected. Studying the group, they learned the thieves were exclusively going after high-performance and luxury models worth considerable sums.

When approaching the vehicles, the thieves were already outfitted with high-tech tools which rendered any factory security systems ineffective, giving them immediate access to the interior and allowing them to start the engine as if they had the key.

After a car was stolen, it was taken at least one state away and stored in a garage of some sort. Then they were either chopped or given fake VIN tags.

While the ringleader is in custody, the FBI says it’s working on rounding up the rest of the organization. Sadly, we fear another one will just pick up where that one left off, something we keep seeing happen.

Image via Roush Performance/Facebook