SOMERSET, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Pulaski County car dealership is dealing with the aftermath after six of its vehicles were stolen on Tuesday.
Security cameras captured the moment six thieves broke into the dealership and drove off with six Dodge Challenger Hellcats.
The payoff of the six cars amounted to $600,000 while it lasted.
On Thursday, one of the suspects was arrested for his role in stealing the cars, and five of the six Hellcats were retrieved by police.
Of all the vehicles at the dealership, experts say there’s a reason Dodge Challenger Hellcats were the ones to go.
“They're special, these cars are worth something, they're high performance, and they're in limited supply,” said Brian Moody, executive editor at Autotrader. “Also, they share a lot of parts with other cars that are less expensive, so if you had just the engines from these cars…that's already worth something right there.”
Dodge Challenger Hellcats are slated to go out of production at the end of the year. In the meantime, Moody says Hellcats and other “attainable” muscle cars can be a hot ticket for carjacking.
“Fortunately, or unfortunately, part of the appeal with these is that there's a huge ‘Look at at me’ factor, and sometimes the people looking at them are not the people you want to see,” explained Moody.
According to a recent study by from the Highway Loss Data Institute, Dodge makes the list three times of the cars that thieves are most likely to steal. The list includes Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, Dodge Charger HEMI, Infiniti Q50, Dodge Challenger, and Range Rover.
“Popular, high performance car that uses a common platform… just a recipe for people wanting it,” said Moody.
The Don Franklin Chrysler dealership hopes to have five of the six cars returned by Friday.
