Last week, a thief flew into Salt Lake City without a ride to his next destination.
Fresh off a plane and in the airport’s well-lit, short-term parking garage on June 5, he began tugging on car handles for access to a vehicle, Salt Lake City police said. That’s when he happened upon an unlocked Lamborghini — with the keys inside.
The thief, whose identity was obscured by a black hoodie, first began to rummage through the blue 2023 Lamborghini Urus, valued at about $234,000. With no visible witnesses or parking lot traffic, he started at the front seats before making his way to the trunk, surveillance video released Wednesday shows.
After seeming to find nothing of interest, he casually strode back to the driver’s side before starting the luxury vehicle and driving away in style. Now, police are asking the public to help find the car, originally bearing Utah license plate G829TV.
(Salt Lake City Police Department) Surveillance video shows a man entering a Lamborghini SUV at Salt Lake City International Airport on June 3, 2024.
Amy Buckley, a dealer principal at Salt Lake Motorcars, which sells Lamborghinis, said the model stolen is “very popular in the Salt Lake area.” About 200-250 Lamborghinis are owned in the region, she said.
The theft was at least the fourth Lamborghini stolen locally in the last few weeks, she said, citing another recent theft in Midvale and two Lamborghinis stolen from a Salt Lake City rental car company that were later recovered in Wyoming.
In the airport case, the owner had first parked the super sports SUV in the short-term garage on June 1. They returned to the garage June 9 to find and report their car missing.
Joey Lober, a part-time Utahn who rented out his white Lamborghini through Onyx Rentals in North Salt Lake, knows the Lamborghini owner’s pain.
Lober’s 2019 Lamborghini Huracan Performante, valued at about $320,000, was one of the two rental cars stolen out of Salt Lake City recently. He rented his vehicle out over Memorial Day weekend, The Denver Gazette reports — and when it wasn’t returned on schedule, he called police. A green 2015 Lamborghini Huracan was also rented and went missing at the same time.
Two men in Lober’s Lamborghini were stopped by a Rawlins police officer in Carbon County, Wyoming, on May 26, according to a court filing — and as he and another officer talked to the men, the green Lamborghini went past them on a flatbed truck.
The two men have since been charged with theft, according to the Gazette.
The wheels of Lober’s Lamborghini were damaged, the front bumper was cracked and the electronics were torn out, Lober told the Denver outlet. “They really hurt my car, to be honest,” he said. “I cried like a little baby.”
Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Jay Scheel said in an affidavit that in his experience, “vehicles of this value are often taken, stripped for parts, or alerted or ‘cloned’ [given a different VIN number] to avoid detection by Law Enforcement or the proper owners.”
Buckley says that the dealership is telling their customers to be “hyper vigilant” after these recent auto thefts.
As Salt Lake City police continue to investigate the airport theft, they said anyone with information on the car or the thief may contact investigators at 801-799-3000.
