Recalled Diesel Volkswagens and Audis Stolen From Silverdome Storage
Dozens of recalled Volkswagen diesels have vanished from the Silverdome parking lot in Pontiac, Michigan, over past last week. The stadium was once home to the Detroit Lions and monster truck rallies. Now defunct, it has been converted into a makeshift purgatory for thousands of emission-cheating VW and Audi-branded autos waiting to be fixed and resold.
Michigan authorities are working with out-of-state police to track down over 60 stolen vehicles. Roughly a dozen of the missing cars were located at an auction lot in Clarksville, Indiana, last Friday. Those recovered units have laid the groundwork for how the police are handling the investigation.
“They were given fake titles, Michigan titles, and that’s how they were transported out of state,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin told the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday. “And that’s how they were being sold, they had bogus titles on them.”
Volkswagen has been keeping track of the vehicles they are buying back. So, when specific vehicle identification numbers starting showing up again in their system, they knew something was amiss. However, by the time someone could do an assessment of the stadium lot, many more had disappeared.
Nine more cars were located in Hardin County, Kentucky, this week — six Passats and three SUVs, according to WDRB-Louisville. “The Oakland County Police Department made contact with Kentucky State Police vehicle investigations because there had been some titles that had been fraudulently attempted to bring into Kentucky,” said Sgt. Jason Morris, public information officer for the Kentucky State Police. “This is not only a multi-county, but multi-state investigation right now.”
More vehicles have cropped up since but authorities have not released any detailed information on how the cars arrived out of state. Likewise, no known charges have been filed, nor have there been any arrests made in relation to the thefts.
A spokesperson from Volkswagen said the company was unable to comment on the ongoing investigation.
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Why would VW care? The insurance money is far more than they will get out of all the expenses for these cars. They should "encourage" thieves to steal them all. Or what they should have done in the first place. Stripped the cars, and sold the parts.
So much stupid here. I have neighbors with security cameras to watch for people stealing $1.37 in change overnight from their unlocked cars, but apparently VW didn't point a single camera at this erstwhile holding area? I hope VW gets billed for the costs incurred by the various local agencies that will have to track these cars down. Also, it seems pretty likely that someone is eventually going to get caught and go to jail for this... It would seem like the smarter thing to have done would have been to ship them to Mexico or the middle east where it's unlikely they would wind up cross-referenced and detected.