Seven vehicles stolen from car dealership near 76th & Dean Road; two in custody

MILWAUKEE --  Milwaukee police are investigating a burglary that happened early Monday morning, May 16th at John Amato Hyundai, located at 8301 N. 76th Street (near 76th and Dean).

According to police, several suspects broke into the business and stole seven vehicles and several sets of keys.

One of those vehicles, a 2012 Cadillac SRX, was involved in an accident a short time later near Fond du Lac and Silver Spring when the stolen Cadillac hit a Ford Windstar. The male driver of the Windstar was transported to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Police say a boy and a girl were taken into custody.

MPD’s investigation is ongoing.

This is not the first dealership to be burglarized recently. Earlier this month, car thieves  broke into the Kia dealership located at N. 91st and Brown Deer Road.  According to Milwaukee police, the burglars got in through a window, and then drove three vehicles out of the building -- right through the front glass garage doors. Police say they recovered one of the vehicles, but are still looking for the suspects.

And in January, three dealerships were broken into on Milwaukee's south side.

No vehicles were stolen from the MLH dealership near 29th and Burnham -- but the owner said his business suffered more than $2,000 in damage.

Melih Goral's surveillance cameras captured the eight suspects inside and outside his dealership. The suspects arrived in a silver Dodge Caravan around 4:00 a.m. on January 4th and stole eight sets of car keys.

No vehicles were taken.

Goral said that's because the keys belonged to vehicles located on the inside of the lot. The suspects were able to get into at least one vehicle -- which could be seen in the surveillance video.

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Police said the same group was believed to be responsible for an attempted burglary around 4:10 a.m. on January 4th at Ram’s Auto Sales near 22nd and Greenfield. The suspects were unsuccessful in stealing any of the cars from that dealership.

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The president of the Automobile Dealers Association of Mega Milwaukee says these kinds of crimes have significant consequences for all of us -- including rising automobile prices and insurance rates.

"It hurts deeply," Jim Tolkan said. "It gets you angry. It costs millions of dollars worth of damages, and puts lives in jeopardy. There's certain things the dealerships have to do to make it more difficult for thieves."

Tolkan said dealers can take keys out of vehicles stored in both the showroom and service area during off-hours, and store the keys in a substantial safe.

Tolkan also said there are security systems that warn and capture images of people who walk onto a lot.

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.