A theft ring in Australia has been discovered and shut down by police, but only after they managed to steal 140 Holden V8 engines (LS motors) and 175 of the corresponding transmissions. According to various news reports, the group of seven people who have currently been brought into custody included at least one former employee at the Elizabeth, Australia assembly plant where the engines were stolen from. Police have recovered 30 of the engines and an unreported amount of transmissions, but most of them have been sold via eBay, word of mouth, and other quiet methods. The police are trying to track down the people who bought the engines now, as they are in the possession of stolen property.
According to Australian news, the criminals stole both 6.0L and 6.2L V8 engines. They snagged both automatic and manual transmissions as well . The total value of their haul has been listed at more than $2-million dollars. While it is funny to listen to and laugh about Johnny Cash’s famous song, “One Piece at A Time” the tale of a Cadillac line worker slowly smuggling parts out to build his own car, this is a totally different level. How the hell do you manage to weasel out 140+ engines before getting caught? One would think that the inventory control of the plant would catch it before moving into triple digits of theft!
We’re thinking that these Aussie engine outlaws are going to be facing plenty of time in prison. The irony there of course is that the big house is a place where people try to sneak stuff IN….not like the plant where they were sneaking stuff out.
LINK: $2-million in car engines stolen from Elizabeth plant
There’s another Bangshifty dimension to this story…one of the main accused is a guy by the name of Robin (Robbie) Bolger who is an Aussie stuntman and drift car driver ( see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5JLLLbvQh4 for example) – he drift(ed) a Monaro (which is what we sold you guys as a Pontiac GTO) – so maybe thats a clue as to why he wanted a supply of LS engines…
On another angle, I was an apprentice at GM/H , first at Woodville and then the Elizabeth plant. At Woodville I heard about , and witnessed the aftermath of the theft of a number of Chev V8’s (350 and 327 engines left over from the late 60’s generation Monaro’s). At Elizabeth however, one night shift just after midnight, we saw about 6 whole cars leave the plant at very high speed – turns out that the last thing they do is actually stamp engine numbers on the cars….these cars went missing before that step – apparently the engines in your story also did not have engine numbers stamped….
“We weren’t stealin’, Mate . . . we were just takin’ out the trash.”
The security guards must have had a few too many shrimp on the “barby” or were on the “Foster’s” lunch plan . . . .
But something’s wrong with the math. 175 transmissions and 140 “LeSs” engines are worth $2mm? (presumably AUD) That’s ~ $6,350 per unit! (Skeptics: Divide $2,000,000 by 315).
Because we know a “Less” engine is worth $200 (on a good day), those transmissions must have been made out of platinum . . . .
If 315 widgets actually costs Holden $2mm, then we know why “Government Motors” nearly went out of business.
Considering that “the land of wonder, the land down under” started off as a British penal colony, these bandits were probably just following the light-fingered path of their foreparents.
(Too bad the Aussies don’t run some new tourism commercials so that we Yanks would have some newer jokes)
Speedy said penal
Now first off I hate thieves ! !
But I have to think of the Johny Cash tune ” One piece at a time ”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIuo0KIqD_E