Hey, bad guys: If you steal a Ferrari, maybe you should have some gas money
This criminal escapade, quite literally, ran out of gas.
Last month someone stole a 2015 Ferrari 458 Spider, worth $300,000, from a service center in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Police caught the suspected thief after he reportedly asked people for gas money at a Mobil gas station. The Ferrari was trashed.
The underneath was ripped to shreds, the paddle shifters torn out and the dashboard “chopped,” the car owner’s boyfriend, Eadweard York, told KTLA in Los Angeles.
There was vomit inside and on the outside of the car — perhaps from the thief when he realized how much it costs to gas up a Ferrari.
The suspect, 38-year-old Israel Perez Rangel of Santa Ana, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of vehicle theft with a prior felony conviction of driving or taking a vehicle, grand theft auto with a prior conviction, and vandalism, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The car’s owner, Susan Friedman of Laguna Beach, told the newspaper that employees couldn’t find the car when she went to pick it up from the service center on Oct. 19.
She says an employee left the key on the passenger seat.
Security footage showed a man wearing a Ferrari jacket — police say it was Rangel — walking past employees, looking in a few car windows and then driving off in her car. Reportedly no one noticed it was missing for more than a day.
“It was just like ‘Gone in 60 Seconds,’” said Friedman said, a reference to the 2000 Nicolas Cage movie about car thieves.
On Nov. 1, Santa Ana police received a report of an exotic car being driven erratically, and an officer found the car at a Mobil station.
“After running away from the vehicle, the suspect was arrested behind the bushes at the entrance to the Holiday Inn,” said police spokesman Anthony Bertagna.
Friedman, who described the last month as a “nightmare,” told the Times she got a check from her insurance company.
She bought a 2018 Lamborghini Huracán with the money.
This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Hey, bad guys: If you steal a Ferrari, maybe you should have some gas money."