Four sentenced for luxury car thefts across the country, including an Asheville BMW thief
Surveillance footage from BMW of Asheville taken in the early morning hours of Tuesday
By Kelly Doty and Ruby Annas
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — A man involved in a brazen theft at an Asheville BMW dealership in 2023 was among four sentenced for stealing high-end vehicles across the country.
The U.S. Department of Justice says Dewanne Lamar White, Kevin Ja’Coryen James Fields, Reginald Eugene Hill, and Garyka Vaughn Bost were part of a Charlotte-based, multi-million-dollar auto theft ring.
Each defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport, possess, and sell stolen vehicles in interstate commerce, according to federal officials.
A spokesperson for the department confirmed White was part of a group of people who broke into the BMW of Asheville on Feb. 14, 2023, and drove off with four cars in a matter of minutes.
Federal officials say from 2021-2023, the defendants stole vehicles worth millions of dollars from dealerships in over a dozen states and targeted luxury vehicles by Bentley, BMW, Cadillac, Land Rover, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and other manufacturers.
On Feb. 16, 2023, News 13 spoke with Patrick Williams, the sales manager at Asheville BMW at the time described the scene that White was involved in.
He said that when he arrived at work on Tuesday, Feb. 14 in the morning and APD was already on scene. It was a big glass mess where the crime occurred.
Using the dealership’s surveillance footage, Williams showed News 13 the crime.
Around 4:18 a.m., seven people arrived at BMW of Asheville in a car and got out. One of the suspects threw a rock through the window on the side of the building.
They all entered through the busted window.
Williams said they were only inside for a matter of four minutes. During those four minutes, they used the same rock to break through the glass door into the office that had the safe with the keys.
The suspects then used a crowbar to break open the safe and took every single car key that was inside.
They can then be seen on video exiting through the same hole through which they originally entered before heading to the lot with the parked vehicles.
Williams said the suspects began pressing every key to see which cars were going to be the most accessible to take.
They ended up leaving with four cars; Williams said two of them were new and two of them were used.
Williams said this was clearly not the suspects’ first time committing this type of crime.
He said that the crime was well-orchestrated and there wasn’t any time for anyone to catch them in the act.
White was sentenced to nine years in prison.
The investigation into the crime continues.
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