A 21-year-old in Washington state allegedly led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen 2014 Chevrolet Corvette, got arrested, and then broke into the impound lot three weeks later to steal the same car again. You have to admire the commitment, if not the judgment.
According to KOMO News, Washington State Police first spotted Duop Tiet Pidor driving the yellow C7 Corvette without plates in Pierce County on January 4. When a trooper tried to pull him over, Pidor allegedly floored it — weaving through traffic, crossing double yellows, driving into oncoming lanes. Police ended the pursuit with a PIT maneuver.
Pidor told officers he’d bought the car in Oregon and that it had been rented out to other people. He was booked into Pierce County Jail. The Corvette was hauled to Hometown Towing and Recovery in South Prairie, a secured impound lot.
On January 30, surveillance cameras captured someone being dropped off at the impound lot at 2:46 a.m. The locks on the gate had been cut. The yellow Corvette was gone.
Cell phone records, police say, placed Pidor at the location at least nine times between January 15 and January 30. He wasn’t just winging it. He was casing the place for two weeks.
The reconnaissance operation had a peculiar cover story. Employees at Hometown Towing told investigators that Pidor and members of his family had repeatedly contacted the business and even visited the lot in person, claiming they needed to retrieve personal belongings from the car. Each visit, apparently, doubled as recon.
Pidor now faces charges in Pierce County Superior Court for second-degree burglary, motor vehicle theft, and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. The Corvette was eventually recovered in Seattle by the King County Sheriff’s Office, roughly 60 miles north of where it was impounded.
The whole episode reads like a script rejected by the Fast and Furious franchise for being too implausible. A stolen car gets impounded behind a locked gate, and the suspect allegedly returns repeatedly to scout security, then breaks in under cover of darkness to take it back. This isn’t a crime of opportunity — it’s a project.
It also raises uncomfortable questions about impound lot security. Cutting a lock and driving away in the middle of the night shouldn’t be this easy when a car is supposed to be in police custody. Hometown Towing’s setup was evidently no match for a determined 21-year-old with bolt cutters and a two-week plan.
Corvettes have always attracted thieves. A C8 ZR1 was recently found stripped and abandoned on a dirt road. Another stolen Corvette hit 150 mph heading toward the Mexican border.
A pace car was swiped from an Idaho racetrack. The C7 generation, with its relatively simple key fob system compared to newer models, remains a particularly popular target.
But stealing the same Corvette twice — once from the street and once from the people paid to keep it locked up — puts Pidor in a category of his own. Whether he actually owned the car, as he claimed, or simply couldn’t let go of it, the result is the same: multiple felony charges and a yellow Corvette that has now been impounded for a second time.
One assumes the locks are better this time around.
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