Ford Explorer and Jeep Wrangler are missing and the low-lives that took them are still on the loose.
The Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer in Chattanooga, Tennessee provides free lifetime services to children with cancer and their families to improve their quality of life. One of those services is an industrial arts therapy program in which patients and their family members customize a car. That not only teaches the children to how to solve problems and work together, but it also results in a vehicle that can be auctioned off to raise funds for the foundation. It planned to take two of its latest creations, a custom 2018 Ford Explorer Sport and 2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, to the auction block, but last weekend thieves stole them before they could.
According to the foundation, “Both vehicles were to be auctioned in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Leake Auto Auction in January 2020. The foundation’s previous automotive build project, a 2017 HURST Jeepster Commando, raised $225,000 when it was sold at auction earlier this year.”
Whoever stole the Wrangler and Explorer left a trail of destruction in their wake. They broke through the fence at the organization’s Education Advancement Center where the vehicles were being stored, vandalized a trailer that the foundation uses, and littered the ground with parts, which seem to include the Explorer’s roof rails and basket.
Both rigs are insured, but the policies only cover the donor vehicles, not the parts that the foundation’s patients and their families installed. Austin Hatcher Foundation President Amy Jo Osborn said, “Even if the police find the vehicles, we probably won’t be able to use them as fundraisers as we’d planned. This is truly a huge loss.”
To try to fill in the financial gap these thefts have created, the Austin Hatcher Foundation started two fundraising campaigns. One is on Go Fund Me, which you can find by clicking here. The other is on Facebook; we’ve embedded it below.
If you happen to have any information that may lead to the recovery of these important vehicles, please call the Chattanooga Police Department at (423)698-2525.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
