Several Northeast Ohio law enforcement agencies working together to catch dealership theft suspects

AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) - At least four luxury car dealerships in Northeast Ohio have been targeted by thieves in the last two months. 19 News has learned law enforcement agencies across our area are working together to try to track down the ring of thieves.

On Thursday 19 News obtained new body camera video from the moments following one of the thefts.

“We’ve had massive break-ins at high-end car dealerships in Akron, Strongsville,” an unidentified official said in the police body camera video.

Cleveland police body camera video shows the moments officers found two stolen Mercedes Benz cars abandoned near Helena and Elgin avenues.

“That car took off from me. 40 minutes ago, that car just took off from me at 105 and Superior,” one Cleveland officer said.

“I mean we can’t say for sure if it was him, but we seen two little dudes coming over here with ski masks,” another officer added.

As you hear in the video, Cleveland police officers tried to pull the drivers over but lost them during the pursuit.

The cars had been stolen from the Mercedes Benz dealership in Akron earlier that day on January 5, that was the third time in a matter of weeks that someone had busted into a dealership to steal luxury cars and a little more than a week later the thieves struck again.

19 News obtained surveillance video from the most recent theft at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in North Olmsted on January 14. You can see in the video 5 thieves get away with 5 high-end cars. One of them just happened to belong to Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.

On January 3rd the thieves hit the Fiat and Alfa Romeo dealership in Strongsville. They were caught on camera then too. The crooks made off with 9 cars.

On December 19th three luxury cars were swiped right off the showroom floor of Junction Auto dealership in Geauga County.

“One night we had 5 vehicles stolen out of a BMW dealership the next night they came back they took two more, then they hit Strongsville for 4, I think,” an official said. “Then they hit Geauga County for a hell cat and then this morning they hit the Mercedes for 3.”

Authorities do believe all these car dealership thefts are connected and they’ve been working together to try to track down this band of crooks, but so far detectives say they don’t have any leads. If you have any information that could help, contact Cleveland, Strongsville, North Olmstead, or Akron police detectives, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office or Ohio State Highway Patrol.

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