Man takes new truck for a test drive and never returns

STURGEON FALLS — Michael Tremblay has been involved in the car sales business for more than 30 years. 

Tremblay, the owner of Tremblay Chevrolet Buick GMC in Sturgeon Falls says he has only once before experienced what happened at his dealership on Monday morning.  

A man, who claimed to be Scott King, came into his dealership to test drive a 2020 GMC Sierra HD Denali Crew Cab and never came back (see photo above).

"He was so nonchalant, he does not come in trying to hide anything," said Tremblay in an interview with BayToday.  

"This is an everyday guy, everyday Joe who came in in work wear, not trying to hide it, he was not nervous or anything."

Tremblay says the man came in with a story that seemed legit. He told them he totalled his vehicle two weeks ago and got an insurance settlement. 

"He wanted to try out our truck and his boss was at the Comfort Inn in Sturgeon Falls," said Tremblay.  

"He wanted to show it to him. We took a copy of his driver's licence, we wrote down his phone number and we sent him out on a test drive. He was just going to the Comfort Inn so it was not very far.

"A couple hours later and he never came back so we went to the Comfort Inn and they told us no one like that was staying here with only four rooms rented and all to families." 

That set off alarm bells for Tremblay but they decided to wait until noon, but when they still had no contact from the driver, they called the police.  

Tremblay then followed protocol and gave the police his driver's licence and phone number. 

"The police had contacted the person on the driver's licence and the person was actually sitting at home and answered the phone and said he got his driver's licence stolen back in July but it looks like the guy who came in," explained Tremblay.  

"We got him on video and the police have that."

The dealership immediately shared a photo of the man from the security camera along with photos of the truck on social media. Tremblay says the post was shared more than 1,700 times and he has gotten multiple leads from friends and anonymous callers to the dealership. 

Tremblay and the Ontario Provincial Police describe the person of interest as:

• Heavy build
• 250-280 lbs.
• 6'0" tall
• Wearing a dark sweater and toque, with an orange construction coat and dark construction pants and boots.

Tremblay says they have a smaller dealership so he estimates they do four to six test drives per day. Now they will need to create another layer of protection so thefts like this don't happen again. 

"Now we have to change our protocol as well to make sure that now we are going to question just the honest person that we do not know 100 per cent," he said.  

"We are going to have to go with them, and when they give us a phone number we are going to have to call them and make sure it is the right one and unfortunately make people nervous." 

Tremblay worries that their delay in calling the police may have given the thief enough time to get it to a nearby port and inside a sea container heading overseas. 

"I waited three hours so it could be at a port in Toronto like nothing," he said. 

If anyone has any information regarding this investigation, please contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or submit information online at www.ontariocrimestoppers.ca where you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2000. Ref.# E250050946.