This Ferrari 458 Spider Was So Nice, The Man Stole It Twice, Allege Fontana Police
Even those who perfect the art of carjacking know when to let go of that elusive trophy four-wheeler. But Earnie Steven Hooks just couldn’t let go of a Ferrari. It was so alluring that Earnie returned back to steal the car again from the impound lot.
The seductively beautiful black 2014 Ferrari 458 Spider, which has a 570-horsepower V-8 engine, gets 17 highway miles to the gallon and has a starting retail price of $257,412, is certainly a thing of beauty that hardly anyone with even a slight interest in motor vehicles will ignore. Unfortunately, the car is a rather rare beauty as compared to Hondas and Mercedes Benzes.
Hence, when police stopped a black Ferrari Spider, they knew right away that Earnie didn’t own the car. Earnie Steven Hooks, 39, was stopped at a DUI checkpoint on the morning of August 29 near Fontana’s Village of Heritage neighborhood, reported Auto Evolution. Additionally, the police had reports about a stolen Ferrari that exactly matched the description.
But the stock police cars are no match for the Ferrari’s racing DNA, and Earnie successfully fled the scene. Interestingly, officers later found the Ferrari abandoned in the area and quickly impounded it, said Fontana police spokeswoman Martha Guzman-Hurtado.
Poor Earnie must have been bitten badly by the Ferrari bug because police records show that at around 3 a.m., Hooks allegedly broke into the impound lot and stole the car again. Five days later – Thursday, Sept. 4 – Fontana police detectives located Hooks driving the Ferrari in the area of Ventura Boulevard and Vineland Avenue in Studio City, reported Fox News.
Hooks remains in jail at the West Valley Detention Center, with bail set at $5 million. He has been charged with two felony counts of vehicle theft and a misdemeanor count of obstructing or resisting police, according to online court records. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Hooks has been accused of stealing a car.
Preliminary background check revealed that he has an active case in San Bernardino County court in which he has pleaded not guilty to vehicle theft, receiving stolen property and driving under the influence of alcohol in December 2012, and that case mentioned that Hooks has a prior conviction for vehicle theft.
Fontana detectives declined to release additional details about the vehicle’s owner or what Hooks’ motive may have been because the investigation is ongoing. A Ferrari is certainly an eye-catching, adrenalin-pumping racing machine, but to steal the same vehicle twice earned poor Earnie a permanent place in the hall of shame for dumb criminals. However, what’s equally intriguing is exactly how did Earnie manage to break into a police impound lot and steal the vehicle from under the nose of the law?
[Image Credit | theexpensivecars.com, Fontana Police Department]
