Brazen thief steals BMW from San Francisco dealership

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco police arrested a 37-year-old suspect accused of stealing a car from a South of Market BMW dealership and driving it through the showroom window early Monday morning.

San Francisco police spokesman Albie Esparza says the male suspect allegedly broke into the BMW dealership at 1675 Howard Street near South Van Ness Avenue at 5:15 a.m.

"It's not something I'm completely surprised about. I actually see it, you know happening in areas of Market. I worked at some stores that have definitely been broken into," Preston Chen said.

"Crazy, I mean how do you drive a BMW off a showroom floor and go three feet down a sidewalk and still get away with it," Gregory Sherman said.

When police arrived to the scene, officers found a large floor-to-ceiling window of the dealership smashed and discovered cars had been moved

around.

The suspect apparently broke into the dealership, located a locked box where the vehicles' keys were stored and allegedly tried to steal a black BMW, but it didn't fit through the showroom window so he took another one that did.

At 5:23 a.m., police responded to a call of an injury hit-and-run crash at Mason and Post streets near Union Square involving a new BMW.

The vehicle jumped a sidewalk and smashed into an SUV with Alberto Del Rio, a limo driver, asleep in the car. It stopped when it hit a building wall.

"First thing I remember is feeling a big impact and the loud sound of a crash," he said. "The next thing I know, my door is right against that tree right there."

Del Rio was shaken but suffered only minor injuries.

The suspect in that crash fled the scene on foot.

Tai Thai, a worker at a nearby hotel, saw the whole thing. "He came here, I heard the sound bam and SUV stay here sleeping. He sleep in car right here," he said.

At about 6:30 a.m., an officer responded to a domestic dispute between a male and a female at a separate location in the city.

Police say the man said something that linked him to the BMW incident. Then, police determined that the male was the same suspect wanted in connection with the burglary and hit-and-run.

Bay City News contributed to this story.