ROSS TOWNSHIP — Right now, Ross Township Police are looking for whoever stole inspection stickers at local auto repair shops over the weekend.
Detective Sergeant Brian Kohlhepp said someone broke into the Midas and Jiffy Lube on McKnight Road Saturday night and at both shops pried opened the lock box containing the inspection stickers and stole them.
At this time, it’s unclear if this crime involved one or more suspects.
They also tried to do the same thing at Meineke on Babcock Blvd. The owner, Bob Hollinger told Channel 11 what happened.
Police said they stole inspection stickers to sell on the black market.
“They dismantled the meter off the wall of the building so there’s no power in the building and cut all the communication lines so the alarm system couldn’t notify anyone,” said Hollinger.
Hollinger said the suspects then smashed the garage door windows — which have since been repaired — and then used the shop’s pry bars to try to break into the safe.
“They proceeded to take our tools and tried to pry open the door, which they were successful, and then pry open the safe which they were unsuccessful,” said Hollinger.
Hollinger showed Channel 11 the damage to both the door and safe. He’s glad they didn’t get away with any stickers.
“It’s been a long time since stickers were this hot of a commodity, obviously something’s going on that these guys feel they have a market for it,” said Hollinger.
Police said whoever stole the inspection stickers will try to sell them to people on the black market who don’t want to get their car inspected.
Right now, police are trying to track down the serial numbers on the stolen stickers.
Meanwhile, Hollinger is securing his shop even more.
“This is why we decided to change protocol and move the stickers, buy a better safe, just make them more secure than we already had them,” said Hollinger.
Police said other auto repair shops in the county were also hit but couldn’t share more details than that yet.
Right now, Ross Township police are reaching out to several other local departments to see if the same crime was recently committed in their areas.
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