They were smooth and they were smart.
And they were able to steal a vehicle from Colony Motor Products in Humboldt.
Lanigan RCMP are looking for more information on the theft which took place between 6 p.m. on Nov. 30 and 8 a.m. on Dec. 1.
Kevin Plemel with Colony says a woman came into the dealership just before closing time on Nov. 30 to discuss purchasing a vehicle and set up a test drive of the 2010 Chevrolet Silverado extended cab.
While the potential customer had the keys they switched the vehicle key with an identical copy.
Returning later to the dealership with the key they were able to steal the vehicle between Thursday night and Friday morning.
Since the customer said they were returning for a test drive, the sales associate noticed it missing when they went to get the vehicle ready for the customer.
Within an hour of checking whether the vehicle was gone for other reasons, Plemel said they then reported it to the RCMP and sent out posts on social media.
Thanks to the high visibility of the posts, a hunter noticed the vehicle hidden in some bushes south of Humboldt and Colony was able to recover it.
Plemel says the thief did nothing to draw attention to themselves and acted like a person looking to purchase a vehicle.
“They were acting like a buyer and no one really could remember her that well, even the sales person. She didn’t act memorable.”
Other indicators point to the thief being a professional with no damage to the vehicle even with the anti-theft technology successfully disconnected, says Plemel.
Without the swift recovery, Plemel says they are assuming the thief was planning to recover the vehicle at a later time and they would not have recovered the vehicle at all.
“The fact that they found a spot that was fairly well hidden indicates that they were probably going to be coming back to get that vehicle with some sort of trailer.”
