SEGUIN, Texas – Thieves stole all four wheels -- tires and rims -- from about 20 new pickups on the parking lot at a Seguin car dealership.
Shawn Driscoll, the general manager at Seguin Chevrolet, said he rushed over to the business, near Interstate 10 and Guadalupe Street, early Sunday morning after getting the bad news in a phone call.
"You know, you walk in and you see all your beautiful trucks on the ground. It's devastating," he said. "You've got people here that depend on these vehicles being ready to sell and it impacts their livelihoods."
Driscoll said the crooks were able to break the lock on a gate to the parking, then cut the wires on the lights that flood the business at night.
Once in the darkness, the thieves removed locks from the wheels and took about $100,000 worth of tires and rims.
Driscoll found the trucks on blocks that the criminals apparently cut and brought along with them.
"And they were very particular as to which wheels they took,” Driscoll said. “They didn't take them on all the trucks, just the expensive ones."
Seguin police have been investigating and said the crime required a lot of planning.
"It's not a bunch of teenagers that went in and took a set of tires and wheels. It actually seems like maybe professionals came in there," said Sgt. James Springer. "We've seen it before, in just a couple of vehicles. But this amount, that's new to us."
The crime is one that may be making the rounds. Driscoll said he heard from his insurance adjuster that several car lots were hit last year.
“They’re targeting the more rural ones,” Driscoll said.
It appears that in the Seguin case, the criminals were especially bold. The lot is located near a busy road and just across the highway from the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office.
Seguin police ask anyone with information to call them at 830-401-2360.