Adult masterminded car thefts by teens, police say

Detectives found the seven stolen cars and arrested the five boys suspected of stealing them from a Pompano Beach car dealership Sunday night.

Still missing: The keys to 20 more vehicles from the ransacked dealership and the man who “acted as the mastermind in the theft,” the Broward Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

The five Pompano Beach teens — 13, 14 and three 15-year-olds — are accused of stealing the cars and a storage box filled with the keys to the rest of the vehicles on the lot from Ducas Auto Dealership, 1550 N. Andrews Ave. Extension, west of Interstate 95 and north of West Atlantic Boulevard, arrest reports show.

Authorities says the boys jumped a fence and entered the business through a door that was mistakenly left unlocked and left by ramming through a gate with a stolen Buick Enclave, the reports said.

Surveillance video recorded the boys ransacking the dealership’s office.

The mothers of three of the boys turned them in after seeing the footage air on newscasts. School officials at Blanche Ely High contacted the sheriff’s office and identified another one of the boys, the reports said.

Investigators used GPS to track down the fifth boy and the stolen BMW he was driving, the reports said.

“Detectives were able to recover the stolen vehicles but their investigation continues as they search for the adult thief and the stolen keys,” said Gina Carter, a spokeswoman for the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.

She would not say why investigators believe an adult was behind it all. The redacted juvenile arrest reports made no mention of an adult mastermind.

The boys are each charged with seven counts of grand theft auto, one count of burglary and one count of grand theft.

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