US News

By Olivia Land

Startling surveillance footage captured the moment a band of teens from the Chicago area broke into a Wisconsin Jaguar/Land Rover dealership and sped off with more than half a million dollars worth of high-end vehicles – later leading police on a dramatic 40-mile chase.

In a coordinated heist, several black-clad individuals pulled up to the Waukesha dealership in the early hours of Feb. 18, pried open the key box and got into nine cars, the footage shared by FOX6 News showed.

One of the thieves got into a Land Rover Velar and used the car “as a battering ram” to smash through the garage door, the outlet added, citing the criminal complaint.

The group ultimately made off with an enviable fleet that included a 2019 Porsche Macan, a 2024 Land Rover Discovery Dynamic and a 2021 Jaguar F Type R-Dynamic, FOX6 said.

The total value of the vehicles was $583,339, officials explained.

Eight of the cars belonged to the dealership, and one belonged to a customer.

The dealership operators arrived a few hours after the robbery to find the garage door destroyed and broken glass strewn throughout the parking lot, police said.

The brazen theft led police on a nearly 40-mile chase Sunday morning, which ended when one of the drivers – 17-year-old Calvin Valentine – crashed the 2021 Land Rover-Range Rover Westminster, valued at $73,998, in the West Allis area, according to FOX6.

In an interview with police, Valentine confessed that he was picked up early Sunday in the Chicago area, the outlet noted.

“The defendant stated that his friend gave him a key and he got in the white SUV that he crashed during the pursuit with West Allis. The defendant stated he was just ‘doing kid’s stuff,’” the complaint read.

The teen also claimed that “he did not know what people would do with these cars.”

Valentine is now staring down four criminal charges – including burglary and receiving stolen property –and remains in Waukesha County Jail on $50,000 bond, according to online records.

“We believe this to be an organized crime group of teenagers from the Chicago area,” Waukesha Police Chief Dan Baumann said in a press release.

By mid-week, six of the nine stolen vehicles had been recovered, with four of them found in Chicago, according to WISN12.

The eight other suspects, however, reportedly remain on the loose.

The Waukesha and West Allis Police Departments did not immediately return The Post’s request for a comment on the investigation.

In the wake of the dramatic heist, local officials stressed the importance of security in preventing further thefts.

“You have to be unbelievably vigilant when business closes, that you account for all keys and make sure they are all in a secure lock box,” Jim Tolkan, president of the Auto Dealers Association of Mega Milwaukee, told FOX6.

“Having on-site security after closing, whether it be every night, make sure all the keys are locked in lock boxes. [The] cost involved is significantly less than what’s going to happen if you have seven, four, five, 10 vehicles stolen,” he added.