Detroit is a world-class city with some F-tier criminals. Several of these criminals went to great lengths this week to steal a single catalytic converter from a used car lot and gained themselves a ton of embarrassment in the process.
It took three thieves to pull of this grand caper at Govanni Used Cars on Thursday. One to drive the getaway vehicle into a pole, one to use a sawzall to cut through the gate lock and snag a single catalytic converter and another to fall out of said getaway car. Oh, and he dropped his gun, too. From CBS News:
Video showed one of the men fall out of the car as they attempted to flee. Police say the suspect’s gun fell onto the street as he got back in the car.
“They got away with a converter and a whole lot of embarrassment,” said Kola Gjonaj, owner of Govanni Used Cars.
Gjonaj said that when police saw the security footage, they were astonished at the thieves’ brazen attempt.
“We love Detroit police, they’re amazing. But when they came and watched the video, they couldn’t help but die laughing over and over,” Gjonaj said. “They just kept saying, ‘Play it again, play it again. This is better than TV.’ It was hilarious.”
The thieves did about $2,000 to $3,000 worth of damage to the gate. The suspects remain at large, and Detroit police are investigating.
Govanni Used Cars has been in business for 37 years and say they’ve never experienced a Three Stooges-style robbery before. They’ve also been lucky to avoid such a fate, as catalytic converter thefts have spiked over 1,000 percent following the pandemic due to the valuable metals found inside. A single criminal family in Sacramento, California raked in a fortune of $38 million on a cat converter scam. A towing company, which are always known for their trustworthy and stalwart ways, got into the scam as well, stealing millions from unsuspecting car owners.