A Ferrari 488 Pista Was Destroyed Moments After It Was Stolen
It was like a real-life Gone in 60 Seconds—in more ways than one.
A pair of thieves managed to total a Ferrari 488 Pista moments after stealing it last month, according to Road & Track. The dimwitted duo lost control of the supercar while making their getaway and were left to watch the fruits of their labor go up in flames.
The incident occurred in Cahors, a small town in the southwest of France, during the early hours of January 20, according to the French newspaper La Dépêche. That morning, the two men broke into the showroom of ILM Auto. In a heist movie, this would be the first step of a meticulously worked-through plan, but the movies aren’t real life, and it appears the suspects didn’t bother to think about what would need to happen once they were inside the building.
Here’s where things take a turn for the absurd. After breaking into the dealership, the suspects proceeded to spend approximately 45 minutes looking for the keys to the 488 Pista. The mistakes would only get bigger from there. They then could not figure out how to cleanly remove the supercar from the building. Perhaps aware that time was running out, they then decided that it was a good idea to drive the vehicle right through the showroom’s closed garage bay window. Today’s Prancing Horses are much heartier than those of yesteryear, but they are still not meant to be crashed through glass.
The pair wasn’t done with its bungling yet. Within miles of the dealership, near the town of Montpezat-de-Quercy, the man driving the 488 Pista lost control on a wet road. The car clipped a guardrail and burst into flames. They were able to escape by the time authorities arrived on the scene, but, again, it appears they had failed to take into account that it can be difficult to drive a car with a 3.9-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 that makes over 700 hp.
“You can’t drive a car like that just like anything else. You have to know what you’re doing,” ILM Auto owner Nathan Azais told La Dépêche.
Being dumb doesn’t mean you’re not lucky, though. Sure, the two men may not have made off with a $345,000 Ferrari, but the fire they left behind managed to destroy all physical evidence of their crime. That leaves Cahors police with only surveillance footage to help them solve their case.
Authors
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Bryan Hood
