Nanaimo auto shop smashed as thieves steal two vehicles

Thieves broke into a Nanaimo auto repair shop early Tuesday and stole two customer vehicles, which they used as battering rams to smash through the large overhead doors.

Kevin Goldsbury, who owns Nanaimo Midas on Island Highway, said he’s seen a lot of crime in his mechanic businesses over the decades — smashed windows, stolen tools and break-ins — but nothing like this.

“We’re down four bays and didn’t do any business today because we’re just cleaning up and trying to rig up some temporary doors so the shop is going to be safe and we can keep operating,” Goldsbury said Tuesday.

The thieves threw a rock through a window at about 3:30 a.m. to gain access to the garage, rifled through the office for keys and drove away with a Ford F-350, which had been brought in the day before for work, and a Subaru Forester, which had just had a $2,000 head gasket job on the motor.

The thieves reversed the vehicles off the hoists and smashed through the doors.

Goldsbury said he’s out the cost of repairs on the vehicles as well as wages for six technicians and other staff.

It will take about 14 weeks for new overhead doors to arrive. Those will be covered by insurance, but framing and creating a new door system so the business can continue to operate will be extra costs — not to mention the lost business.

“I’ve been telling customers that we just can’t get them in,” Goldsbury said. “Not until we can safely store vehicles.”

Goldsbury said they started storing vehicles inside overnight after a spate of vandalism over the years, mostly broken windows and attempted thefts. He said RCMP planted a bait car on the site a few years ago. The car, which locks perpetrators inside, caught a would-be thief the first night.

“You assume that [the vehicles] are going to be pretty safe in there,” he said. “But then this happens.”

Security footage showed the thieves leaving with the vehicles, but the quality wasn’t good enough to produce facial photos. New cameras are being installed.

Nanaimo RCMP said the stolen cars are a white 2019 Ford F-350 with no licence plate and a 2009 black Subaru Forester with B.C. licence plate LF1 61C

Both vehicles would have sustained significant rear-end damage from smashing through the bay doors, RCMP said.

Police ask anyone with information to call them at 250-7542345.