Thieves drive stolen Corvette through glass wall

PENTICTON – Car thieves drove a Corvette through a showroom's glass wall at a Penticton car dealership Thursday night.

Penticton RCMP received a report near midnight of smashed glass and a car speeding away from the Huber GMC dealership at 933 Westminster Ave. West. Officers arrived on scene and found a showroom glass bay door smashed open and a car possibly missing from the showroom floor.

An employee attended and confirmed a silver 2011 Special Heritage Edition Grand Sport Corvette was missing.  Shortly after their arrival and as RCMP officers examined the scene, the vehicle sped past on Eckhardt Avenue toward Highway 97. An RCMP car gave chase and was able to follow the 'Vette a short distance as it left Penticton and confirmed its direction of travel as northbound on Highway 97.

RCMP officers stopped pursuing the suspects and the vehicle due to the suspects' erratic driving and high speed. Details of the car were relayed to Summerland RCMP. The 'Vette was then seen and clocked on radar travelling at 220 kilometres per hour in the Trout Creek and Summerland area on Highway 97.

RCMP detachments to the north including the West Kelowna RCMP were also advised and set up a roadblock near the connector area however the vehicle was not observed and believed to have turned off the highway prior to that location.

The Penticton RCMP are continuing their investigation into the break-in and are asking that anyone with information regarding the break in and theft contact the Penticton RCMP at 250-492-4300 or Crimrestoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

To contact a reporter for this story, to send photos or videos, email Shannon Quesnel at squesnel@infotelnews.ca, call 250-488-3065, tweet @shannonquesnel1 or @InfoNewsPentict