Update: The truck was located on Sept. 23. The vehicle was a total loss, but the auto shop's insurance will cover the truck.
Previous: The 2005 black Dodge Ram that belongs to Regina Doyle's husband is more than just a truck to him.
It became a symbol of his recovery and was supposed to help the family financially.
"He just knew he would drive again, and he wasn't ready for us to sell the truck," she said.
Doyle's husband suffered a severe brain injury in June 2018 that left him unable to drive, so the truck has sat idle in the family's garage.
Between lost wages and mounting medical bills, insurance for the vehicle became too expensive.
Finally, the family decided to sell the truck, which is how it wound up in the parking lot at Midwest Auto Services in Blue Springs last week for a pre-sale inspection.
"We did a couple of little maintenance things to make it really nice so they could get top dollar for it," Midwest Auto Services Director of Operations Brian Peck said.
The staff parked the truck in their lot Friday, but the family couldn't get a ride to pick it up until Sunday.
"When I came to pick it up, it wasn't here," she said.
When Doyle called, Peck checked the shop's surveillance footage. The cameras showed a thin man in an oversized white T-shirt and jeans walking across the parking lot around 8 a.m. on Sunday.
The man walked closer to the truck to see what was inside.
"I just knew at that point," Peck said. "I got the feeling in the pit of my stomach that this is the guy that took the truck."
Sure enough, a couple minutes later he broke into the truck through the back window and, within five minutes, drove off the lot.
Peck posted pictures of the truck and the culprit on social media in the hopes of spreading the word. The post has reached more than 14,000 people.
"The more people that can see this and possibly find the truck the better," he said.
The Doyle family needs it to be found in the same shape it was left in last week.
"Don't trash it too much," Doyle said. "Park it somewhere, walk away. All we're trying to do is just get our truck back so we can sell it to take care of some of the things we need to take care of."
