2 missing Toyota vehicles found

Two Toyota vehicles from Atkins Kroll Saipan that were reportedly missing since Monday were found yesterday.

Earlier this week, Atkins Kroll, a Toyota dealership, sought police assistance to locate two missing vehicles from their lot. Both were found yesterday.

According to an AK personnel, one of the missing vehicles, a 2019 Toyota Tacoma, was found behind the dealership near the Marianas Visitors Authority building yesterday morning. Police later found the second vehicle, a 2018 Toyota RAV4, in Gualo Rai.

The Department of Public Safety is still investigating the incident and there are currently no suspects.

Atkins Kroll’s Ernie Galito said in a short phone interview that AK would like to hold off from issuing an official statement in order to give police a chance to thoroughly investigate the incident without any disruptions.

For those who may have information related to any of the two vehicles, contact DPS at 911 or the CNMI Crime Stoppers hotline at 234-7272.

According to a DPS statement, DPS responded at about 3:55pm last Tuesday to a report of two missing vehicles from the AK Saipan Toyota dealership.

At about 4:05pm, officers arrived at the scene and met with one of the managers of the dealership and were informed that a brand-new white 2019 pre-runner Toyota Tacoma, with no license plates, was missing from the vicinity and could not be accounted for.

The manager also informed the officer that another vehicle, a dark brown 2018 Toyota RAV4 with the license plate number AFM 101, was also missing.

According to an employee tasked with preparing the vehicle for pre-delivery on Monday, he parked the Tacoma near one of the AK-Kroll buildings and left the keys inside as he continued to prepare other vehicles for pre-delivery. At about 4pm, the employee was about to clock out when he noticed that the Tacoma was not where he had parked it. The employee did not think anything of it as he thought it was moved by another employee.

The following day, the employee was supposed to continue prepping the Tacoma for pre-delivery but could not locate the vehicle within the lot. The employee then notified one of the managers that he was not able to find the Tacoma.

The manager spoke with the sales staff and asked if the Tacoma had been delivered to the customer, but was told that they had not called the customer to pick up the vehicle.

The manager then went out into the yard with a few employees to check if it could be anywhere in the lot but to no avail. He then instructed an employee to check if the Tacoma was not accidentally parked at the dealership’s other lots.

When the Tacoma could not be found, the manager informed the general manager and called 911 for assistance.

The missing RAV4, a lease vehicle, reportedly went in for service on Monday at about 8:44am. The following day, an administrative staff requested for an update on the status of the RAV4 so she could input the information into the computer.

The technicians notified the administrative staff that no one had worked on the RAV4 and later confirmed that the vehicle was also not in the area.