Colorado Springs man takes auto theft investigation into this own hands

A Walgreens receipt is the only evidence Kevin Vargas has that might lead him to the suspect who stole his car.

Vargas said, “I don’t smoke. Who’s purchasing cigarettes? And the person who uses that car doesn’t smoke and especially because it was for two days after the car was stolen.”

On February 1, he walked outside just after 9 a.m. and saw his Ford Fusion used for his business, Majestic Construction, was missing. He filed a police report but didn’t have much hope he’d ever see the car again.

Twelve days later, he got a call from a homeowner on Nonchalant Circle, in eastern Colorado Springs. His car was sitting outside their house. He found the car totaled. The front passenger wheel was torn away from the car’s axle. He towed it to his local auto shop, where they estimated the damaged to be upwards of $4,000.

Inside the car, he found a Walgreens receipt for a pack of Newport cigarettes. He thought they might have surveillance video with the suspect’s face. He went to the store located on Murray Boulevard and Platte Avenue on Monday night and asked a manager if he could review it. They told him their policy only allowed them to show their surveillance video to law enforcement.

“I explained I’m not law enforcement but I’m trying to see a facial recognition of someone we might know,” Vargas said.

This Walgreens is just one block away from where a local auto theft task force team was following what police called a prolific auto thief. This is something Vargas says is concerning, “I’m sure we can get results to find someone that might not be connected to that same incident but someone that can be potentially committing one of those same crimes in the future if we don’t put them behind bars.”