Middle Tennessee police officers are noticing a trend. Criminals are, much more typically than ever prior to, stealing higher-horsepower Dodge autos. They’re not just flipping them on the black industry or chopping them up either. They’re employing them in extra crimes as a strategy to hopefully outrun the law.

The Dodge Charger and Challenger sit atop platforms that are quite lengthy in the tooth these days. Despite that, they each are obtainable with globe-beating horsepower and torque. Thieves across the nation are effectively-versed in exploits that can let them to drive away with a single of these efficiency machines in seconds. It’s a difficulty that is been going on for some time.

Gallatin Police Capt. Lamar Ballard, whose jurisdiction is not far from Nashville, tells WKRN News two that his division has observed an uptick in “high-performance vehicles being stolen.” “We believe that these individuals are coming in with stolen vehicles from other jurisdictions, looking to steal other high-performance Dodges, but they’re also committing auto burglaries while they’re doing this,” Ballard stated.

Read: Watch Thieves Steal Six New Dodge Challenger Hellcats In Under 45 Seconds (Updated)

According to Ballard, these criminals see the advantage in employing a vehicle that has tiny difficulty outrunning the typical police vehicle. “I think that is exactly what they are doing it for,” he says. “They are getting these high-performance vehicles that they know are fast, that they know can probably outrun a police car, so they are coming up in that jurisdiction, in stolen vehicles, looking for high-performance vehicles to leave in.”

According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, criminals stole 149 higher-efficiency Dodge autos in the city final year. As of this report, thieves have currently produced off with 51 in 2023. That’s a massive bump and highlights just how simple it can be to leverage an exploit when it is located.

Just earlier this month, we told you about how thieves in Kentucky produced off with six Dodge Hellcats in beneath 45 seconds. The men and women, in that case, appear to have spread out following the deed was carried out with a single located in Alabama and an additional in Tennessee. Flipping that story about somewhat, a theft in Gallatin saw the suspect drive that Dodge into Kentucky prior to he was caught.