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GODFREY - Smart Choice Auto at 1503 W. Delmar Ave. in Godfrey, is offering a $1,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest of the suspects who broke into the auto dealership at 3:08 a.m. Sunday.
In 13 years, Smart Choice said they had never had more than an occasional broken egg found in the lot, but this time the ADT alarm sounded when it was set off by glass breakage. Jason Enos, owner of Smart Choice, said on Facebook this displayed the importance of having a professional alarm system.
"One of the criminals entered the building by breaking out an office window with brick and let the others in," Enos said. "The alarm was immediately sounding and the intruders knew they had limited time and quickly ransacked the whole place looking for car keys. Without disclosing too much information about our building, they were not able to get inside the locked key box but were able to get into a location where the extra set of keys for each car was located. It took them a while to find the keys and must have decided to leave just as the police were coming.
“The police pursued a Mustang down Belle Street in Alton before losing them. The Sheriff’s Office was hoping to catch them on camera crossing one of the bridges into Missouri but had not as of yesterday. After further count, they ended up with 26 sets of keys, two dealer plates, DL 1580A, DL 1580B and five titles. It will probably cost $4,000 to replace all the keys, titles, windows. We will also now be adding more security to the building.”
Enos thanked everyone for the messages, texts and kind words about the situation.
The thieves are still at large and the vehicle stolen was a maroon-colored new body style Mustang coupe with a white temporary drive-away tag.
Al Davenport, of Master Locksmith, reprogrammed all 17 vehicles with stolen keys and now the stolen keys will not work and the vehicles are safe, Enos said.
Smart Choice said there appeared to be four suspects in the case.
Anyone who has information leading to the arrest will receive $1,000. Contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at (618) 692-6087 with any information that would assist in the case.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
