I flew down to Florida and interviewed the man. He recalled that the bald
man’s name was Carrera. I thought that that was a good name for a person who
liked Porsche cars. I asked the dealer to give me the address and number to the
Porsche showroom and thought I had an idea of how to catch this thief. When I
returned to D.C., I told Heath about how our thief’s name might be his Achilles
Heel and would lead us to him if we were deceptive. My plan was that we could
have Porsche advertise their all-Polaris Porsche car, and have them announce
that only one car at a time will be shipped to the States. This Polaris would
only be sold at one dealership in North America. I knew that Carrera couldn’t
resist the temptation of getting his hands on this first of its kind new car.
Porsche agreed to advertise that it would only be issuing one car at a time.
Luckily for us the national news blew this story up, making the Polaris sound as
if it was the best thing since sliced bread. Porsche began to advertise the
arrival of the first car, and made sure it was at the Orlando dealer at the
specified time. All we had to do was sit back and watch things develop.
We knew Carrera would jump at this one time opportunity. Prior to the first
evening of the car’s arrival, I was at my motel getting ready for what I thought
was going to be a big show. I put my bulletproof vest on and then I tucked away
my little 44 Magnum, preparing to duel wits with Carrera. That evening we put
the car in the showroom and everyone left after closing. From a safe vantage
point across the street at a Ford dealership I watched intently from a 2000
Windstar minivan. I waited for six hours, until it was three in the morning.
Finally my plan began to work as Carrera showed up! He was wearing all black and
his face was covered up. He went up to the building, used a key to enter the
compound, and slipped into the showroom. As he went right in, I wondered how did
he get a key to the building, and why wasn’t the alarm going off since those
weren’t normal business hours? I concluded he had to be friends with an employee
to be able to get that much access to the building. However, my thoughts and
concentration turned back to catching Carrera in the act. I was shocked to see
Carrera simply touch the car door and start the engine! He then got in and
backed slowly out of the showroom. When he put the car in drive he automatically
lost control of the car. The car had a mind of its own! The doors locked on him
and the convertible top automatically came down covering the car’s cockpit. The
car started to accelerate fast, and drove itself on to the interstate where
luckily there were no other cars. The police had blocked off the interstate all
night for just this reason. The car sped at hundred and twenty miles and hour
until it got off the ramp and drove right to the police department building.
Once there, the car shut itself off and the police surrounded the car. How did
this happen? In my original plan I had the Porsche team design an automatic
driver system, especially for that evening, so that it could drive Carrera
directly to jail. After his arrest and confession we found all his cars in a
warehouse out in the desert. His henchmen had transported all the stolen cars
there in U-haul trucks. The employee who gave Carrera a key to the dealership
was arrested. Meanwhile I got a huge bonus from the insurance companies for my
time spent on the case, and with it I got a new Porsche.
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