Ferrari F50 stolen during test drive
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Ferrari F50 stolen during test drive
Ardmore, Pa. (AP) - Where do you hide a $729,000 Ferrari during rush hour? That's what police in the Philadelphia suburbs want to know, after a con man drove off with a red Ferrari F50 during a test drive.
The Ferrari F50, which can hit 60 mph in less than 4 seconds and tops out at 203 mph, hasn't been seen since.
Police theorize it was hustled into a trailer and quickly shipped overseas for sale on the black market.
The company made just 349 of the eye-popping Italian roadsters, described by one car-enthusiast Web site as "part Batmobile, part ballistic missile", in 1995 to commemorate its 50th anniversary. It was designed to be a street version of a Formula One race car.
The thief, a nattily dressed man who claimed he had flown up from Atlanta and had a limo waiting nearby, took the test drive Sept. 16 without producing a license. The ID, he said, was in the wallet he had left at the airport.
The salesman from Algar Ferrari in Rosemont first took the prospective buyer for a spin, then let him get behind the wheel. During the test drive, the man, clean-cut and sporting a shirt, tie and apparent Rolex watch, pulled to the side of the road and asked the salesman to drive back to the dealership.
When the salesman got out, the thief sped off.
Police were summoned, but never spotted the vehicle. Now they're looking for the con man, described as a 6-foot, slender white male with reddish-brown hair and glasses.
Lower Merion detectives believe he had help.
"This took a lot of planning," said Det. Charles J. Craig, the lead investigator.
Police are also exploring whether the case is tied to similar Ferrari thefts in North Carolina and Long Island, N.Y.
Ferrari F50
The Ferrari F50, which can hit 60 mph in less than 4 seconds and tops out at 203 mph, hasn't been seen since.
Police theorize it was hustled into a trailer and quickly shipped overseas for sale on the black market.
The company made just 349 of the eye-popping Italian roadsters, described by one car-enthusiast Web site as "part Batmobile, part ballistic missile", in 1995 to commemorate its 50th anniversary. It was designed to be a street version of a Formula One race car.
The thief, a nattily dressed man who claimed he had flown up from Atlanta and had a limo waiting nearby, took the test drive Sept. 16 without producing a license. The ID, he said, was in the wallet he had left at the airport.
The salesman from Algar Ferrari in Rosemont first took the prospective buyer for a spin, then let him get behind the wheel. During the test drive, the man, clean-cut and sporting a shirt, tie and apparent Rolex watch, pulled to the side of the road and asked the salesman to drive back to the dealership.
When the salesman got out, the thief sped off.
Police were summoned, but never spotted the vehicle. Now they're looking for the con man, described as a 6-foot, slender white male with reddish-brown hair and glasses.
Lower Merion detectives believe he had help.
"This took a lot of planning," said Det. Charles J. Craig, the lead investigator.
Police are also exploring whether the case is tied to similar Ferrari thefts in North Carolina and Long Island, N.Y.
Ferrari F50
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