Car Thief Makes Key While On Test Drive

Neil Brister, a Texas car salesman, had his personal vehicle stolen off the lot where he works. The next day, his wife saw it on Craigslist. Brister has been selling vehicles for 45 years and what happened to him was certainly a first. It all began when he decided to sell his Chevy Silverado on Craigslist.

Brister drove the SUV to work and decided to let an interested party check out the vehicle at the lot where he worked. A young man showed up at the store where Brister works and wanted to learn more about the Silverado, he also wanted a test drive. Brister obliged. He let the young man drive off in his truck. However, the test drive lasted longer than usual, in this case 35 minutes. Thinking nothing of the longer-than-expected test run, Brister returned to work. That’s when his truck vanished.

It vanished right into the hands of young Issac Smith. The young man stole Bristler’s truck. It didn’t take extensive police work to put two and two together. Bristler’s wife found the vehicle on Craigslist the very next day. Using a different phone number, Bristler and his wife responded to the ad for his stolen truck. It was an ever-changing ad. Bristler’s Silverado went from bright red to shabbily painted primer black. The once-clean SUV now had a patchy backyard primer paint job. Not blowing their cover, Bristler and police showed up to purchase the vehicle in the Ridgmar mall parking lot. That’s where police arrested Issac Smith and finally confirmed that Smith got away with the vehicle so easily because he had made a copy of the vehicle key during his test drive.

In this story, a salesman loses his vehicle right after a test drive because the would-be thief made a key How long is too long for a vehicle test drive and would you ever let a prospect drive your vehicle alone?