Man Accused Of Stealing 9 Cars Before Burning Down Dealership

Police in South Carolina have arrested a 53-year-old man for allegedly stealing nine cars from an Anderson County dealership before torching the entire facility to the ground.

The thefts occurred on November 6, but authorities only pieced the events together after responding to an inferno at Deals on Wheels. Upon extinguishing the flames, they discovered that multiple vehicles were missing from the lot. The suspect, Charles Chambers, is believed to have executed the thefts entirely on his own, abandoning the cars in various locations across the county. One vehicle was found parked in the lot of a nearby church, an ironic touch to an otherwise destructive spree.

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Chambers now faces a mountain of charges, including nine counts of grand larceny, second-degree arson, malicious injury, second-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, and breaking into a motor vehicle. Local police haven’t revealed the man’s motives, but he may have set the dealership on fire in an attempt to cover his tracks.

Unfortunately for Chambers, security cameras at the property caught him in the act. While fire crews responded to the blaze, they were not able to douse the flames until the entire property was destroyed.

According to Shale Remein from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, police are eager to learn the reasons behind the thefts and the arson.

“What is a little bit interesting about this is the suspect is from Spartanburg,” Remein told WSPA 7News. “What is the motive here? Why did he come into Anderson County? All of that is being looked into by our detectives, but it is quite odd for somebody to break into a car dealership and not only steal cars but scatter them across the county.”

Authorities have not released a list of the vehicles either destroyed in the fire or stolen during the incident, leaving the full scale of the damage yet to be tallied.