Nowadays, car showrooms and their owners face numerous concerns. Automotive sales are down in many regards, and the recently announced tariffs are exacerbating the situation. However, one of the most significant concerns is car theft. Recently, several arrests were made in Louisiana after cars disappeared from a lot. In this case, the culprit was someone from the dealership, and several arrests have now been made. 

Car theft impacts showrooms in several ways

According to KSLA, the Shreveport Police Department responded to a car theft from Morgan Buick GMC. However, the interesting thing is that the thieves didn’t only steal one vehicle or even a few. Instead, someone had somehow driven away with 22 cars from the dealership. Naturally, this prompted a thorough investigation into the vehicles’ whereabouts. They soon learned that the proverbial call was coming from within the dealership, as it was an employee who masterminded the scheme. 

After some time, they learned that the car theft stemmed from a dealership employee named Joshua Ratliff. It was he who had stolen the key fobs and then enlisted the help of several accomplices. From there, police arrested Deandre Below in late November 2024 after he was found with multiple vehicles from the dealership. Later, they also received a tip about a man named Jerry Butler Jr, who was trying to sell some of the stolen cars. 

The list of accomplices for the car theft doesn’t stop there. Jordan Baker was also involved, as he had received some of the stolen key fobs. He was in jail at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center, but they extradited him to Shreveport to face charges for the theft in December. Then, police also arrested Lamale Gilyard in January of 2025 for having some involvement. The final arrest happened on March 3rd when Corbin Houston was placed behind bars.

Of course, as this is a developing story, more people could be involved in the massive car theft scheme.