- Thieves targeted high-end muscle cars at hotels following Hot Rod Power Tour, stealing four vehicles and damaging several others in Joliet, Illinois.
The people driving in this year’s Hot Rod Power Tour spent Monday showing off some of the best muscle cars in the country at the Route 66 Raceway. By Tuesday morning, several of them woke up to smashed glass and empty parking spaces. Thieves had followed the cars back to their hotels and gone to work overnight.
This is the kind of story that hits enthusiasts right where it hurts. These are not throwaway commuter cars. They are Corvettes, Camaros, and other builds that owners pour years and serious money into, and a crew of thieves treated a hotel parking lot in Joliet, Illinois like a shopping list.
Here is what police have laid out so far. The Power Tour rolled through the Route 66 Raceway on Monday afternoon, and that evening many of the drivers checked into hotels around Joliet. Sometime overnight and into the early Tuesday hours, thieves moved on those lots. At the Holiday Inn on Rock Creek Boulevard, three Chevrolet Corvettes and a Camaro were taken. A Chevrolet SS, a Dodge Challenger, and another Camaro at the same property were damaged but left behind. Over at a nearby Comfort Inn on Commerce Lane, a Dodge Charger was hit too, and officers found broken glass at the scene. Police believe the incidents are connected…