(WXYZ) — Police at the Detroit Metro Airport are investigating a string of car thefts from the airport's parking garages.
One metro Detroit man arrived back from vacation and found his brand new Jeep Grand Wagoneer sitting on blocks!
Another man's Jeep SRT was stolen within 12 hours of parking it.
"I thought it was a joke. Like I honestly thought I was seeing things. My daughter was panicking, she didn't know what was going on. It was something no one would anticipate, that's for sure," Joe Hebeka said.
Joe was returning from his Thanksgiving vacation when he found his new Jeep Grand Wagoneer sitting on blocks. His wheels and tires were stolen as his car sat parked at the Big Blue Deck parking garage at the DTW airport.
"Anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000 for all new wheels and tires and they're hoping there is no other damage done to the car because it was just sitting on the ground," he said.
It took two hours and two tow trucks to get his SUV out of the garage. On top of that, he had to pay $120 for an Uber.
"It looks like there's an issue at the airport," Randall Allman.
Randall is also a victim of car theft. In November, after a visit to Florida to see his son, he returned to his high-performance Jeep SRT being nowhere to be found.
"We went looking for the car. I took a picture of where I parked the car and I knew it was there, but it wasn't there," he said. "So after two hours of looking I thought I was going crazy and determined the car was stolen."
Randall filed a police report and the brazen theft was caught on video. In the video, you can see his jeep following another car driving right through the parking barrier arm.
"In my opinion, I think someone was watching the cars come in and knew it was there and they came and took it," he said.
Both Joe and Randall think more needs to be done to curb or stop vehicle thefts at DTW.
In a statement, the Metro Airport said, "safety and security remains our top priority at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Due to the recent vehicle and tire thefts in our parking decks, we've taken several steps to address the problem."
DTW says they're also looking into installing more cameras in the parking decks.
