Thieves Target ATVs At Tulsa Businesses

Lori Fullbright, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Green Country burglars are targeting expensive summer toys. M & W Powersports, Honda of Tulsa and Bass Pro Shop have all been hit recently. The thieves are taking various models of four-wheelers.

M & W got hit twice in four days. Honda got hit three times in three weeks and Bass Pro got hit once. They say it's a problem that's getting out of hand and is costing them a lot of money in repairs and higher insurance rates.

5/10/2011 Related Story: Four Teens Arrested Trying To Break Into Tulsa Business

Kevin would rather spend his time selling people toys they can enjoy, but instead, he's been dealing with something much less fun: break-ins.

"The gate was ripped wide open, they jacked up another gate, cut chains, swung it open and made off with three machines, for a total of $40,000 to $45,000," he said.

All three vehicles belonged to customers who had brought them in to be serviced. They took a Raptor 700, a Grizzlie 550, and a Commander 1000-X.

As if that wasn't enough, a few days later, the thieves came back, damaged the newly repaired gates and fence, but were scared off before getting anything.

It's maddening.

"You come out of a horrible economy, things start to pick back up and oh, hey, by the way, we're just going to take from you," Kevin said.

The folks at Honda of Tulsa are equally frustrated. They've had burglars cut a hole through one door three times in three weeks. Luckily, nothing has been stolen, although this last time, it was close.

"I think this third time, they pretty well figured out what they were going to do, they were going to come back and probably get some things," Russ Hackler, with Honda of Tulsa, said.

But a neighbor heard them and called police. The helicopter spotted the two 16 year olds hiding under a tent in a backyard. They also got a 17-year-old and 18-year-old Dequaydrain Sango, who was out on bond wanted for yet another burglary.

"It's pretty frustrating, especially when they catch them and don't do anything to them," Russ said.

Even though they didn't get anything here, they still did $3,000 in damage to the door and also rammed a trailer into a customer's boat that had to be repaired.

Honda has a test tank it uses yo test watercraft. They say Sango fell into the tank while trying to run from police, so, he was soaking wet when arrested.

Broken Arrow Police Major Mark Irwin said Bass Pro had two vehicles stolen the same night at M & W. Tthey believe the Broken Arrow thieves are different than the Tulsa ones.