Thieves Target Wheels, Tires At Bartlesville, Broken Arrow Car Lots

More than $70,000 worth of wheels and tires have been stolen from two Green Country car lots this month.

The car lot at Ferguson Superstore is well-lit. It has some gates that lock up at closing time and security cameras never stop rolling, but even all that wasn't enough to stop the thieves.

Service and Parts Director, Jimmy Easton, said 24 wheels and tires were taken last week from six vehicles on the Ferguson Buick GMC lot.

“It was a shock,” Easton said. “They just took their time, they weren't in no big hurry.”

Security footage shows crooks spent close to four hours prying off the parts and even brought in their own cinder blocks to help pull off the crime.

“They're actually carrying the cinder blocks out of the back of the vehicle right here,” said Easton.

He said the culprits used an SUV as a getaway car, but could only fit four sets of tires in the back at a time.

“That's two of them rolling the wheels to the vehicle,” he said. “They made a couple of different trips, they loaded the vehicle up a couple of times, left for 30 or 40 minutes and then would come back and get the other sets of tires.

Easton said the thieves were only after 20 inch rims and tires. They hit five GMC pickups and one Dodge Challenger, a haul worth somewhere around $30,000.

“It's almost like they had certain ones that they were picking out,” Easton said.

The car is still propped up on cinder blocks, while the dealership waits for new parts to come in.

Easton said the color and some of the paint on the cinder blocks links this heist to another one, a bigger one that happened in Bartlesville just a few days later.

7/21/2014 Related Story: Thieves Steal Dozens Of Wheels, Tires From Bartlesville Car Dealership

Thieves ripped wheels and tires off 19 different vehicles at Patriot GMC/Hyundai, a $40,000 loss.

“We're out here trying to work, make money and they come by and take everything and then we have to go fix everything afterwards,” Easton said.

He believes the getaway SUV was a 2000 to 2006 GMC Yukon or a Chevy Tahoe. He said it was a lighter color, white, beige or maybe silver.

The plan now for Ferguson is to add more lights, cameras and better fencing.

Easton said Broken Arrow, Bartlesville and Tulsa Police are investigating.