Dealership Drama: Long-Time Customer's Car Stolen, Used in CVS Smash-and-Grab

When Brian Maydahl got a call around 5 a.m. on May 21, his first instinct was to laugh it off. Placer County was telling him his car—the one he’d dropped off at Maita Subaru for routine service—had just been driven through a CVS store in Auburn during what police believe was an attempted burglary. It had to be a mix-up, he figured. Maybe they had the wrong vehicle.

They didn’t. What started as a standard maintenance visit turned into a cautionary tale about security at dealerships and the limits of customer loyalty when things go sideways.

Here’s what happened: thieves broke into Maita Subaru in Sacramento and made off with two vehicles and several sets of keys. They didn’t just slip away quietly—they crashed through at least one gate on their way out. Maydahl’s car ended up as the battering ram for the Auburn CVS heist. The second stolen vehicle was abandoned in Sacramento the next day, still carrying some of the pilfered keys. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is still searching for two suspects.

What makes this story sting harder is Maydahl’s history with the dealership. He’s been a customer since he was 16 years old—decades of loyalty, repeat business, and trust. When he first spoke with Maita Subaru management, he said he was met with a legal wall: they’re not liable, and he signed something agreeing to that when he dropped off the car. A dealership representative later declined to go on camera but called it“a very unfortunate circumstance,”adding that they did everything possible to secure the vehicles and are working with their insurance company.

But Maydahl wasn’t asking for the moon. His insurance will cover the damage. He was simply hoping the dealership—a place that bills itself as“concierge level”—might step up and cover a few thousand dollars as a gesture of goodwill. Not to make money back, he stressed. Just to make things right with a customer who’d spent years, maybe decades, putting business their way.

That’s the real fracture here. When a long-term customer experiences a security breach at a business, legal liability and contractual fine print aren’t the only things in play. There’s the question of whether a company values the relationship enough to do something beyond what the contract requires—to actually act like they care about keeping someone’s business. Sometimes the bottom line and customer retention pull in opposite directions, and how a business chooses becomes telling.