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A fleet of hot Ram trucks has vanished from an Fiat Chrysler Automobiles assembly plant in Warren, Michigan. Detroit Free Press
Early Friday, May 4, 2018, police found one of eight stolen 2018 Ram trucks on East Outer Drive in Detroit.
(Photo: Warren Police Department)
After the initial 48 hours of investigation, police said Saturday that it’s possible a former or current employee of Fiat Chrysler helped with the predawn heist of eight new Ram 1500 trucks from Warren Truck Assembly Plant parking lot.
Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer said Saturday that officers are conducting interviews, scouring the crime scene and getting tips on the police hotline about the convoy theft of heavy trucks that reportedly crashed through the gate early Thursday.
Two of the trucks were found abandoned Friday in Detroit, but no arrests have been made.
“We do believe there was a good possibility that there was inside information given to the persons responsible for the thefts,” Dwyer told the Free Press.
“That would include possibly a former or current employee. Obviously they knew where they were going, what they were looking for, what area to cut the fence and get into the lot where vehicles were parked. This was not a random, all-of-a-sudden thought or idea. It was well-planned for probably several weeks.”
William Dwyer.
(Photo: Courtesy of Board of Commissioners)
FCA spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said Saturday she had no comment.
The fleet of Ram trucks vanished early Thursday from a gated storage lot that holds vehicles destined for delivery to dealerships. Dwyer said a security guard reported the theft at 3:51 a.m. as the trucks turned south onto Mound Road.
The thieves drove to the plant in a 2003 Ram truck they stole from a residence in Warren, offloaded drivers and cut a hole in the plant’s chain link fence to get into the yard.
Initially, law enforcement believed there were 10 or 11 trucks stolen. Authorities later confirmed eight.
No damage to trucks
The two Rams recovered, a red truck parked on Outer Drive and a white truck parked behind an abandoned house on Monica Street on the west side of Detroit, were not visibly damaged.
The story so far:
Warren police initially expressed frustration that Fiat Chrysler was slow in providing vehicle colors, vehicle identification numbers or surveillance video. A source close to the investigation said Saturday that police have been allowed to review the surveillance video but Fiat Chrysler has not released a copy to authorities.
Tips started coming into the hotline when Dwyer announced a $1,000 cash reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits. Calls to the police hotline indicate a discrepancy between the time of the 911 call to Warren police and when witnesses say they saw a caravan of 2018 Ram trucks racing down streets in metro Detroit.
A shift commander took a call saying a caravan was spotted at 3 a.m. on Telegraph Road near Plymouth in Redford Township. That’s 51 minutes before the call to 911.
No vehicle recovered so far indicates damage caused by a crash through the gate, but police did confirm the evidence techs found the front gate had been smashed.
“We have a team of investigators doing leg work,” said Dwyer, who spent two decades with the Detroit Police Department working vice, organized crime and narcotics.
Early Friday, May 4, 2018, police found one of eight stolen 2018 Ram trucks at 1684 Auto Drive in Detroit.
(Photo: Warren Police Department)
Another witness report placed the trucks in Taylor at about 3:45 a.m. That’s 10 minutes before the call to 911.
‘It freaked me out’
“Four or five Ram trucks blasted by me on Eureka Road heading west. They were running the yellow and red lights at Telegraph Road,” Alon Walker, 66, of Redford,who went to Meijer after his work shift ended at 2:30 a.m., told the Free Press. “They were doing around 55 or 60 in, I think, a 40 mile per hour zone. What caught my attention was how close they were together. It looked like how military convoys move, maybe half a truck length between each truck. It freaked me out.”
He noted at the time that they were near an Interstate 75 exit and he thought perhaps the drivers headed to the airport. There was no traffic at the time.
“By the time I got up to the light at Telegraph, they were at the next light. I can’t believe they drove through Taylor like that,” Walker said.
He couldn’t see the drivers in the vehicles. He didn’t see anyone on the truck beds. He didn’t notice any damage. He said that all the vehicles were painted dark colors.
“But the news said the 911 call came around 4 a.m. And, when I look back, this was before that,” Walker said, noting the 3:35 a.m. time stamp on his grocery receipt.
“I was checking traffic both ways coming out of the driveway. I look east up Eureka and all of a sudden I see this freight train of trucks coming by. I was surprised because it was so early in the morning. To see four or five trucks running so close together and so fast and, boom, they go flying by. I’m thinking, ‘What the hell is that about?’ I know Eureka is the fastest way to get to the airport from that part of town. Then I pull behind them, but they were accelerating away from me.”
He recognized the Ram grille on the front of the first truck. The last two trucks ran the light, he said.
“All these lots outside the factories? They all sit there with the keys in them most of the time. Everybody knows that,” Walker said. “I wondered about these trucks after reading the news and knowing they plowed through a gate. I mean, the trucks off the assembly line have maybe four gallons of gas in them and they get, what, 20 miles per gallon? So these guys would have to stop in 20 to 30 miles at the most or run out of gas.”
In fact, police surmised that the red truck was abandoned after it ran out of gas.
Warren Police, now working with the Macomb County auto theft squad, is coordinating with investigative departments throughout the area. The commissioner provided a 24/7 tip hotline: 586-574-4877.
Dwyer, who has served four terms as an Oakland County commissioner, is concluding that role this year and does not plan to seek re-election. He was hired as Warren police commissioner in 2017 to serve what he called a second tour of duty.
Dwyer said he believes aggressive media attention has contributed to cooperation of parties involved.
Ram ranked third among all vehicles sold in 2017, behind Ford F-Series trucks and Chevrolet Silverados.
The 2018 Ram is a popular vehicle with a price tag that can range from $27,095 to $53,995. So far in 2018, consumers have purchased 143,216 Ram trucks in the U.S.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: phoward@freepress.com or 313-222-6512. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.
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