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Expensive Corvette stolen from dealership

Police want to speak with people in surveillance
Posted at 11:16 PM, Sep 27, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-27 23:16:21-04

A thief stole a $100,003 car from a dealership and detectives want to speak with two people captured on surveillance video that day.

St. Petersburg detectives want to question a man and a woman, who were seen on video, around the same time the Corvette disappeared. The 2016 Torch Red Corvette was stolen from Maher Chevrolet a little more than a week ago. The dealership is located off 34th Street North.

Authorities are still investigating the case and they need your help. If you have any information about this case, call the St. Petersburg Police Department.

James Hendon is the used car director at the dealership. He said they believe the man and the woman were at the dealership two days before the pricey car disappeared; that's when they believe the key fob was switched.

"It's not an uncommon thing that someone will come in, spend some time with the salesperson, get them distracted (and) switch (the) keys and take off with the car," Hendon said.

Hendon said they could not track the car after it was stolen because a feature was disabled.

"In this case OnStar was disabled so they went out and they knew what they were doing and they disabled OnStar so we couldn't chase the car," Hendon said.

The dealership is offering a $2,000 reward to recover the stolen car and for the conviction of the person who committed the crime.

"It's very frustrating obviously you don't have the control you would like to have, but you have to give the customer the ability to buy a car," Hendon said.