SLS AMG Gets Jacked in Venice, CA

The above-pictured Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster was stolen July 30th in Los Angeles. We are happy to report this ended well: the car was recovered unscathed, and the suspect, identified as 20-year-old Dylan Coffey, is in custody; however, the events leading up to this SLS AMG’s recovery were a bit more dicey.

During lunch hour a valet had left the SLS running for its owner in front of Feed Body & Soul restaurant in L.A.’s Venice neighborhood.

A man riding by on a bicycle saw the Mercedes was left unattended, so he entered the car and sped away.

The car’s owner, who is also the restaurant’s owner promptly reported the car stolen. Once mbrace stolen vehicle location assistance was activated, police located the car near a VFW hall in Arleta, another neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles 25 miles north of Venice. Officers arrived at the SLS AMG’s location in anticipation of the joyrider’s return. When the suspect returned to the car, according to LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon of the Mission Detective Division, “Something spooked [the suspect] and he went into the VFW hall where detectives entered.”

The LAPD says Coffey left the hall, jumped a fence, entered a home, dressed in the homeowner’s clothes, and hid under a woodpile to evade detectives, at which point police arrested their suspect.

“The owner was happy to hear her car was found, none the worse for wear, and we promised her we wouldn’t dirty the interior with print dust,” Lt. Vernon said.

Below you can listen to police-scanner audio of the LAPD beginning its search for the stolen SLS AMG Roadster.

via [Venice 311]