Car thieves targeting luxury vehicles in Charlotte like Audis and BMWs are meeting resistance from a Charlotte police team. In April 2023, CMPD formed a task force called SCARLET — Stolen Car And Recovery Law Enforcement Team — after an increase in luxury vehicles being stolen from dealerships and homes. The details were laid out in a search warrant returned this month in Mecklenburg County.
So far this year, has made 68 arrests, seized 66 vehicles, 47 firearms and more than 184 pounds of narcotics, according to CMPD. The team has also seized more than $200,000 in cash. “The investigation has identified multiple, organized crews operating in the Charlotte region engaged in the theft of high-end motor vehicles,” the October search warrant says.
“These thefts include luxury brands such as Mercedes, Land Rover, BMW, Audi, Lamborghini, but also expensive models manufactured by Chevrolet, Dodge, and Ford.” To pull off the scheme, the thieves often follow a plan, the search warrant says. They review dealerships’ websites and pick out cars to steal.
Then they drive to the dealership and break in — sometimes by throwing a rock through a window or cutting through a fence — and leave with what they want. They use other tricks, too: They reprogram blank key fobs to work on the vehicle they want to steal. They visit a dealership and ask to go for a test drive.
“The subject replaces the actual vehicle key fob, with a blank or lookalike key fob. The associate does not realize this and puts them away. Later, the suspects return with the correct key and (drive) the vehicle off the lot,” the search warrant says.
They use fake registration and VIN plates to “recreate the appearance of another vehicle,” it says. SCARLET is still “very much underway,” CMPD spokesperson Mike Allinger confirmed in a message Monday. Detronn Sintell Rayquan Alston, 21, helped steal some of the vehicles, according to the search warrant.
He’s been charged in Mecklenburg County with possessing a stolen Dodge Charger, hit and run, fleeing arrest and resisting an officer. Police asked to search Alston’s phone last October, and Judge Elizabeth Trosch approved the request. In reviewing another phone, a police officer saw that Alston had been in a group chat with other alleged car thieves.
In a December 2022 conversation they talked about driving through the snow in Kentucky. “I’m prob finna hit the highway, police thick,” someone texted the group. Alston asked if he was OK.
“Paranoid, I’m by myself in Kentucky, police everywhere,” he responded. Alston is scheduled for an administrative hearing in court next month. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
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