MIAMI, Fla. – A brazen thief in a backpack walks into a high-rise parking garage. First, he climbs into a Jeep. After a few minutes, he changes his mind. He’s set his sights on a Mercedes SUV. And just like that, he drives off.
"It's so frustrating, it's very, very frustrating," Maria Junger, the owner of the SUV, said.
Junger said she came to the Millecento on South Miami Avenue in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami around lunch time Monday. When it was time to leave, the valet said her car was gone.
"He told me he couldn’t find my car and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and then I asked the front desk for the footage. I was desperate. I said, ‘Can you please help me?’ "
After several requests, she says she was able to get her hands on the video and she was also able to use the car’s tracker to find the car.
The tracker showed the car was in Goulds, about 30 miles away from where Junger stopped Monday.
Even though the car was found, the thief was not. Junger believes the building management bears some responsibility for what happened.
"They haven’t sent any warnings to any residents and this happened because they cut back staff because of the coronavirus," Junger said.
She said the way she’s been treated by the building is adding insult to injury.
“She answered me basically saying, 'It’s not our fault because we’re not liable for that. It’s very cowardly what they’re doing. They’re getting away with something that is very serious.”
Local 10 News reached out to the management company that runs the building. We left a message and have not yet heard back. Police are continuing their investigation into this theft.