In 2025, stealing cars off the street is so passé. Enterprising thieves are getting creative, heading to dealerships and even factories to score brand-new vehicles before they ever reach customers. Case in point is this Hummer heist gone wrong in Detroit last month.
This story comes to us from Metro Detroit News, which captured the aftermath of the incident in Michigan last month. In a video shared on YouTube, we see a pair of stricken GMC Hummer EVs. One is stranded on the tracks, while the other hangs halfway out the back of a train car, heavily damaged from its fall to the ground.
According to the news outlet, thieves gained access to a logistics facility at GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit on May 20. It’s alleged that the individuals were able to break into the train, which was loaded with freshly-built vehicles due to be shipped out of the lot. However, the plan quickly went awry due to the difficult terrain.
The first Hummer EV appears to have made it some ways out of the train, only to get stuck on the tracks themselves. This appears to be due to the passenger-side front tire having come off the rim. The truck may have also bottomed out on the steel rails.
The second Hummer EV fared far worse. It appears to have suffered a hard impact when it dove into the ground nose-first upon exiting the train carriage. The front fender is heavily damaged, and the passenger-side front tire has come off the rim, leaving the vehicle stuck half in the train and half on the tracks.
There is no evidence that any ramps or other gear was used to help unload the 9,000-pound trucks from the train itself. Instead, it appears the would-be thieves attempted to drive straight out of the train car and onto the railway. While the Hummer EV has a lot off-road prowess, the steep ballast, railway ties, and tall steel rails are unforgiving terrain for the vast majority of vehicles out there. It’s presently unclear how the thieves were able to start the vehicles to attempt their escape.
Unfortunately for American automakers, this sort of thing happens now and then at auto plants across the nation. Indeed, it was only December when Metro Detroit News was covering the case of multiple Cadillac Escalades being stolen directly from a storage lot. Click on Detroit covered a spate of similar crimes back in 2022.
There’s very little good in this story for GM. Beyond the damage to two new Hummer EVs, there’s also the sting that the factory and rail areas were not better secured. Beyond that, it doesn’t present the product in the best light. We’d all love to imagine the Hummer EV bounding across an industrial railyard in some kind of crazy action movie, but the reality is that almost no vehicle is going to get dropped off a train onto tracks and survive outside of a Fast & Furious film.
Image credits: Metro Detroit News via YouTube screenshot
I guess it depends what you plan to do with them, but stealing such a connected car seems like a bad idea. You think they’d be the easiest to track down.
Guess they neglected to “Push The Button.”
Business idea: Hummer EVs and Cybertrucks in a demolition derby. I would pay good money to watch them destroy each other.
It’s like what jaguar did with all those unsaleable xj220s.
GM is not upset; that’s two Hummers they don’t have to worry about what to do with. They’d probably prefer if the thieves had managed to get all of them out of the train car.
Yeah, could be an inside job