Car Shopper Kidnaps Sales Person On Test Drive

A car salesman was kidnapped during a test drive near Concord, California. This story began at Lehmer’s Concord Buick GMC when a man came to the store and chose a Cadillac SRX crossover to test drive. He completed the test drive and returned to the store for another test drive. This time, the car-shopper chose a large conversion van valued at $70,000. For this test drive, the car-shopper wanted to take the van to his house for his family to see. The man’s house was in Pittsburg, California some 10 minutes away from Concord. The salesman agreed and once at the man’s home, his family checked out the new vehicle and he went inside to pick up what he said was a down payment for the vehicle. That’s when everything took a turn for the worst.

Once back on the road after leaving his home, the would-be car shopper’s mood changed. He told the salesman this was now a robbery and that the dealership employee couldn’t get out of the car. The now-dangerous car shopper began driving the van erratically, weaving in and out of traffic and running red lights. He also told the car salesman if he told anyone that he would kill him.

However, when the would-be robber was forced to stop for traffic, the car salesman jumped out of the van and quickly called police. Luckily for the car salesmen the suspect was easily identified. The salesman had copied his ID at the dealership before the first test-drive. The suspect must have forgotten about that. He went on to lead police on a short chase and crashed the conversion van. Carl Rodgers, the GSM at Lehmer’s Concord Buick GMC told the San Jose Mercury News that the suspect chose the largest, least maneuverable vehicle on the lot, which was also low on gas to evade police.

Did it ever occur to you when you’re making copies of customer IDs that they could be used to identify suspects? What training do you have in place for sales people if a test-driver becomes erratic or angry?