Polarfox

[PorschePlayboy928]

you live in philly sometimes right? Well what did you do with the F-50?

He dropped off salesman - and took off in Ferrari

By JIM NOLAN

nolanj@phillynews.com

You think YOU'VE had a bad day.

How'd you like to be the trusting Main Line Ferrari salesman who got out of the passenger seat to switch places with a prospective customer last week, only to be left at the curb?

In case you're wondering, that was a $729,000 f-50 Ferrari. Red, of course.

The salesman, not to mention Lower Merion police, are still looking for the car, which detectives believe may have been driven into a trailer shortly after it was stolen for shipment overseas or a black market transaction.

Even harder to believe is that the silver-tongued con man was able to get behind the wheel of the Italian roadster without even showing a driver's license, according to police.

It all happened Sept. 16 at Algar Ferrari, on Lancaster Avenue, in Rosemont, one of only 32 Ferrari and Maserati dealerships in North America.

Lower Merion police said a man called the dealership saying he was flying up from Atlanta and was interested in a red, 1995, f-50 in stock.

He arrived wearing a shirt and tie and a Rolex watch, acting affluent and telling the salesmen that his limo was parked next door in the Acme parking lot.

Salesmen always accompany prospective customers on test drives. But police said that after the first test drive with the salesman behind the wheel, the con man asked to take another spin driving himself, saying he was concerned about the brakes.

Police said he told the dealership that he left his wallet and license at the airport. Nevertheless, a manager agreed to let him drive with the salesman.

Around 5 p.m. on Spring Mill Road, the man asked if the salesman would drive the rest of the way back to the dealership.

"When the salesman gets out, he just takes off," said Det. Charles J. Craig, who is handling the case.

Despite rush hour and rapid police deployment to the area, there was no trace of the car, leading cops to suspect the con man had accomplices.

"This took a lot of planning," said Craig.

Police released a description of the Ferrari thief - White, around 6-foot, slender, with short, clean-cut, reddish-brown hair and glasses. The Ferrari is pretty hard to miss.

Detectives are also looking into whether the theft is related to similar thefts of Ferraris in North Carolina and Long Island. Anyone with information can call 610-645-6228.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews...cal/6864656.htm

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[thepolarfoxqx]

hey man, NOT ME!

they will not let me drive the F-50. The won't let me drive anything there. They let my dad drive a F512TR and an F348, i go down and look at shit from time to time, i can't believe i haven't heard about that.

[GIR]

That salesperson is either real stupid or he's a fool. Why? OH WHY! would you let someone test drive a F50? And even if you would let someone touch it let alone drive it, better make sure he has a licence. A F50 is not a car everybody can handle rightaway, first you need some lessons and need to be thought to go easy and nice on the car. If you try to kick it, it will kick back.

Every dealer in the world asks for some ID before they allow you to drive in a car!

The Ferrari dealer I drove the F512TR had overkill security, it was pretty damn near Fort Nox. They have a special vault which has special climate control so the cars couldn't rust, they even took a picture of me and did a background check before I was allowed to go near the F512TR. If somebody tries to steal a model which is in production it's not a bigdeal, they can replace those. But it's the old models everybody wants you gotta watch.

They even had parts in the vault. People apparently try to steal parts because they can't order any parts for a stolen car. There is big blackmarket for stolenparts.

[LateNightCable]

No matter what kind of car it is, people will always want a test drive. Thats' just part of the buying process. To deny that would be really wrong. I wouldn't buy a Ferrari just because it was a Ferrari. I would want to know how it behaved.

I assume the dealer in Philly was willing to take a chance on the man since he was being accompanied and smelled of money. If a chance to unload an F50 presents itself, they're going to act fast and not be too picky.

They take that stuff with the security vault way too seriously.

[GIR]

Well yeah I should've said that the dealer is right next to the Rotterdam docks so it's really easy to ship stolen cars. I guess they get alot of attempts.

In theory, if you had some containers waiting, you could break in and ship the cars out on the very same night.

By vault I actually mean a huge warehouse with a timelock door which only opens if you have the correct keycard. Again in theory you could place some C4 next to one of the walls and knock a hole in it big enough to drive the cars out... Don't think anybody would risk that though

[kleinefisch]

A test drive with the salesman is no big deal, but a Honda dealer won't let you do it alone. Plus, it gives them a chance to show off the cars fancy features (not the case with the F50, manual windows ).

[thepolarfoxqx]

if you have time to pay attention to bells and whistles on an F50, you have issues.

And when my dad went in to test drive the F512TR, they checked his driver's liscence, and seemed a bit anal, but not too bad, and it was at Algar's, same place the F50 got lifted from. Algar's is about 25 minutes from the docks in good traffic, they were sufficiently reluctant to let my old man take out the F40 that he just gave up.

But we always dress in suits, shined shoes, and of course, bring out the good watches (he wears a rolex, i've got a breitling, maybe that's why they won't let me drive the ferraris).

Next month we'll probably go down there to test drive one of the Maserati Spyders, we'll have to see if they'll let us take it out without a salesman.