What started as a few suspicious missing-car reports at a small Anna-area mechanic shop has turned into a full-blown alleged chop shop case that Collin County investigators say stretches across county lines.
Collin County deputies arrested local mechanic Brian Holgate and associate Calvin McGowen this fall in what authorities describe as an auto theft and chop shop operation. Both men were booked into custody and face multiple felony charges tied to roughly $250,000 in reported losses that investigators say span several counties.
According to a press release from the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, deputies started getting calls in August 2024 about vehicles that kept vanishing from a mechanic shop outside Anna. When investigators circled back to the registered owners, they say the stories did not line up with the shop’s stolen-vehicle reports, raising suspicions that Holgate was taking customers’ cars without permission, then stripping them for parts or selling them off…