On Christmas night our shop, Chavez Motorsports was burglarized and over $7000 worth of parts and cash were taken. On 12/27/05 after doing some investigating we came across the culprit trying to sell the parts via pm's and aim's. We setup a meeting and caught him red handed. Police were called and the culprit was arrested. We have now recovered everything but $500 cash and a pellet gun.

Robert Lee (screen name stockefhatch, kid4life4eva, and possibly others) was the kid we caught selling the parts. He was arrested and admitted to stealing the parts along with a kid named John Ott (spelling). Not sure if John Ott has been arrested yet but beware as he is a known thief also. Robert has previous arrests for stealing cars and other theft related offenses. Unfortunately he is 17 and these arrests have been little more than slaps on the wrist. Another person of interest/suspicion is a girl named Tasha or Sasha (screenname stretc023), a good portion of the parts were recovered from her residence after Robert was arrested. Robert commonly referred to her as his sister even though they are of no relations. She was not charged.

I will post pictures of Robert and Tasha up later as they were stupid enough to take pictures of themselves and load them on my laptop after they stole it.

This has been a very trying affair to everyone at the shop (me, Keith and Kris). I'd like to thank everyone who helped us out with catching these criminals especially the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Detectives that processed the case and our friends who helped in the "sting" operation. I'd also like to thank all of the customers, friends and family that has supported us over the last couple of years. As a result of incidents like these we have decided to close down the labor and fabrication portions of Chavez Motorsports. We feel like it is just not worth it having to deal with shit like this from punk ass kids. It has taken all the enjoyment out of this kind of work and it is at this time that we know it is time to stop. Chavez Motorsports will continue to be a retailer for all automotive performance needs and we will continue to develop our online sales. We are going to focus on building our own race cars and competing in drag, autocross and roadrace events and once again enjoy the sport we love.

I'll add more later as will Keith and Kris.