The only thing worse than a car thief is a car thief who steals custom rides slated to be sold with benefits going to a charity. The Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer has had two custom vehicles that were slated for auction stolen. The proceeds from the sale of the custom rides were expected to help fund the foundation’s programs.
The vehicles were a 2018 Ford Explorer and a 2018 Jeep Wrangler. Both were stolen from the foundation’s new Education Advancement Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Not only were the vehicles supposed to be auctioned to support the charity, but they were also built by pediatric cancer patients and their parents as part of the foundation’s industrial arts therapy division.
The foundation offers all services at no cost to children with cancer and their families. Both of the vehicles were set to be auctioned in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Leake Auto Auction in January 2020. The foundation was looking forward to the funds the sales would raise. The past build project was a 2017 HURST Jeepster Comando and raised $225,000 for the foundation when sold earlier this year.
The foundation has stated that it will be unable to raise the fund that would have come from the auction of the custom vehicles. The bright spot in this story is that the vehicles were insured. However, the insurance company won’t pay for any of the aftermarket parts added. There is little hope of getting the vehicles back in a condition they can be auctioned in since there was a trail of broken parts left from the vehicles at the scene.
Anyone who sees the stolen vehicles or has information on the theft can reach out to the Chattanooga Police Department at (423) 698-2525. The foundation has also set up a Gofundme account to try and raise funds to cover the loss. We recently talked about the theft of a Harry Potter replica Ford Anglia in the UK.
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Source: IMSA
Comment
Wow, what heartless criminals! If they want to steal vehicles, go after the wealthy who can cover their losses with a weeks’ income.
But for all these foundations, please improve your security, and add features to reduce possible theft such as location alarms, disabled ignition and/or fuel systems, and physical steering wheel bars. Unless you guess that this was an inside job where one of the members had access and knew how and when to commit the theft.