The woman, Heather, said she took her car to her local club to get serviced, but when she went to pick it up, it was gone. Heather told viewers she contacted the police, and the Tulsa Police Department told Newsweek that an investigation is underway.
The insurance experts at Uswitch released a report last year that revealed Oklahoma as one of the worst states for car theft, with 378 car thefts per 100,000 owners. Of course, Heather said her car “wasn’t just stolen—it was given away.”
“So, I am here at Sam’s Club [and] I went to go pick up my car at the Tire and Battery [center]…they can’t find my car or my keys,” Heather said in a video posted to TikTok on Monday. “Nobody has answers.”
Heather posted a follow-up video later that day, saying store security footage revealed that a man approached the employee working in the auto department, pointed at her car and asked for her keys. Without hesitation, the employee handed the keys over, Heather said.
“So [the man] takes the keys, [and] he is not asked for [a] driver’s license [or] membership card,” Heather said.
Sam’s Club Membership
To shop at a Sam’s Club warehouse, an individual must possess a membership card or be enrolled in a 90-day free trial, Insider reported. However, a membership is not required to visit the pharmacy, liquor store, cafe or optical center.
Sam’s Club employees typically ask members to show their cards at the door and the registers, Allrecipes said. The chain even has “exit greeters” look over shoppers’ receipts on the way out to ensure nothing went awry during checkout.
Given these safeguards, it’s unclear how the man could’ve entered the Tire and Battery center—a member’s only benefit—and taken Heather’s car without showing a membership card. Heather said the man “created a diversion,” but Newsweek has reached out to Sam’s Club for more information.
The Aftermath
Posting to TikTok on Tuesday, Heather said police found her car “in pretty decent condition” late Monday night. However, police told Newsweek on Wednesday that they “don’t have a record that [they] have found the car yet.”
“Why is none of this normal?” Heather asked her viewers. “My car wasn’t just stolen—it was given away by a Sam’s Club employee to a white homeless man who just asked for it.”
Newsweek has reached out to Heather for comment.
Viewers React
Oddly, several of Heather’s viewers said they’d suffered similar experiences.
“I was just at Sam’s tire center, and they left my keys out in the open. Nobody came to help me, so I grabbed them myself and left,” MerMer alleged.
“This happened to a friend of mine. [Walmart] gave her car to a homeless man,” Michaela Christine said.
“This actually happens at Walmart all the time. Anyone with a vest can just walk in and grab your keys. No one will ask them anything,” mikhailOG said.
In the News
In March, a California woman accused of stealing a car arrived at her court hearing in a different stolen car. Also in March, a Louisiana woman allegedly stole a car to pick up her boyfriend from jail.
