Flummoxed By Locked Gate, Thieves Stake Out LA Apartment To Steal Muscle Car: Reports

A group of thieves stole a man's muscle car from the garage of his Studio City apartment building this week — but not before spending over an hour attempting to get it out in an ordeal that was caught on camera, according to reports.

The incident began Tuesday after 4 a.m., when three people used a tool to break into the garage of the building, located Acama Street and Valley Spring Lane, CBS Los Angeles reported.

The suspects then got into the car — a 2017 Dodge Charger Daytona 392 — and successfully started it up, but were unable to leave because the gate was locked.

“They got inside [the garage] and they were in there for a while,” car owner Stephan Wendel told KTLA. “They got into my car and started the car, I don’t know how.”

The garage gate requires a code to open. The thieves exited the car and began searching for a solution — including by rifling through the car, apparently looking for a remote, KTLA reported.

Not finding success, the thieves parked the car in the garage and walked outside to a nearby white Cadillac sedan and waited for a resident to open the garage, according to the station.

An hour later, a resident arrived and opened the gate. Surveillance video aired by KTLA shows the suspects pulling up in the Cadillac before two men exited the vehicle and held the gate open.

A neighbor spotted the thieves and tried successfully to chase after them.

She followed the guys for a while, from here down to Ventura and up to Tujunga. But then they floored it, and then she lost them," Wendel told ABC 7.

Last year, 57,987 vehicles were stolen in Los Angeles County and about 84% of those were recovered, according to the California Highway Patrol.