Monday, November 03, 2025

Multiple vehicles stolen from Bethesda auto dealership


Montgomery County police are investigating the theft of several vehicles from an auto dealership in Bethesda on October 21, 2025. During the early hours of that morning, police say, multiple vehicles were stolen from Jim Coleman Cadillac at 10400 Auto Park Avenue. Police have not released any surveillance camera footage from the dealership, and state that they have no suspect descriptions at this time. If you have any information that could assist detectives in closing this case, call police at (301) 279-8000.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robert, yesterday you said that you began this blog in 2006.
Should we expect a 20-Year Retrospective set of posts in the New Year?
Seriously--I, for one, would be very interested.

Anonymous said...

Pity MCPD encrypts all their radio traffic. If they didn’t, scanner listeners would have heard the description of the stolen vehicles, giving police extra sets of eyes to watch the streets and phone in anything that matched the description.

But, I’m sure the PD knows best by keeping all their comms private and secure, so nobody has any idea what’s happening until it’s far too late to do anything about it.

I’m not sure I agree with you 100 percent on your police work there, Lou.

JAC said...

Someone please tell me how it's possible to steal a modem car. That may sound like a silly question. But, I really would like to know. This isn't the 70's when you could easily hot wire a car in less than a minute. Do these thieves steal the key fob or is their some hacker device you can buty that grabs the signal which makes the car computer believe that key is present? Thank you!

Anonymous said...

The title of the retrospective will be "My Moribund Memoies of MoCo".

Anonymous said...

So nieve. That's what we have AI for. Learning slowly.

Anonymous said...

Modern cars are easy targets due to proximity keys. The residential low-tech thief has one of their partners walk near the front door or one of the bedrooms with an amplified antenna while the other thug is constantly touching one of the front door handles. once the antenna picks up the key signal, it's amplified where they can open the door and start the car. They don't even need the key to drive away and once unlocked they can use a key cloning machine if they actually want a key. In many high car theft countries like Italy, most cars still use a chipped key.

Then you have Hyundai & Kia who thought it was a great idea to allow many of their cars to be started without any key at all and combine that with progressive crime/bail policies, especially towards those under 18, and you have yourself a crime wave.

That said, these cars like some other higher end dealerships were probably targeted for foreign container shipments heading out of the country.

Anonymous said...

Fargo!! Got it!

Anonymous said...

5:33. And do you think the criminals here wouldn’t be listening to the police district channel?

Anonymous said...

Yah betcha yah! At the very least, we can continue listening to fire & rescue dispatches to quelch some curiosity.

Anonymous said...

@1:54, you unintentionally reveal the additional benefits of open-air police comms. If the bad guys *are* listening, they know they need to get, pronto, because the call has been made and of is en route. That can often short-circuit the crime in progress, crooks knowing better than to hang around hoping they finish before cops appear. In this case, nobody heard any radio traffic, the police were not there in time *and* no civilian eyes could be on the lookout for the bad guys: lose-lose.

JAC said...

12:55 - Very informative. Thank you! Because of all this nonsense, I bought a Farady box where we place our keys every night. Nice and secure from electronic snooping.

Anonymous said...

Crime ridden B-town ain't no Mayberry RFID. 😏 Some of you will see what I did there...

Anonymous said...

@12:55 - "Nice and secure from electronic snooping." So you think. Don't poop your pants if you awake one morning and find nadda in the driveway.

Anonymous said...

Don't they know they depreciate immediately when you drive them off the lot?

JAC said...

7:08 - Not sure why you say that. Farady pouches and other form factors like the box I bought are used every day now to shield electronic signals. So, if my key fob is in there, how am I gonna wake up to find nada as your say?

Anonymous said...

@12:55 PM The Swiss deflate their tires to deter the Italians from stilling their expensive German cars.

Anonymous said...

Most people don't understand automotive canbus systems but many cars have specific shortcuts because most manufacturers are cost conscious and often lazy. Virtually every rental car I've had in Europe, including expensive cars, had a traditional chipped key. Give me that anytime.