$150K Camaro stolen from influencer during Southern California event
An influencer's celebration of her custom car being turned into a die-cast model quickly turned to panic as the vehicle that inspired it all – a custom $150,000 Chevy Camaro – was stolen at a local event.
Autumn Spooner is an automotive influencer who flew in to SoCal to celebrate and promote the launch of a die-cast replica of her custom real-life Chevy Camaro ZL1.
Her prized possession was stolen on Friday evening while it was being displayed in the parking lot at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, according to a spokesperson for Spooner. She had left it in the care of Jada Toys, a brand that was displaying the car as part of the launch, the spokesperson said.
'This was meant to be a milestone moment for Autumn, as her real-life ZL1 inspired the release of a die-cast replica,' the spokesperson added. 'Instead, it's become a nightmare…no formal agreement was signed transferring liability, and the situation has left her devastated and without answers.'
Spooner herself posted a video to Instagram to clarify the situation, saying she was 'literally on the plane' to California when she received the gut-wrenching news.
'Basically, I transported it [to California] and got [to Costa Mesa] around 2 p.m.,' she said in the video, which was posted late Friday night. 'As I was boarding the plane, I got a call that my Camaro was stolen, which definitely was not the call I wanted to get.'
Posts to Spooner's Instagram story allegedly show the car being driven eastbound on the 91 Freeway near the interchange with the 57 Freeway. The Camaro, which she had wrapped in purple, had been unwrapped and the license plate removed; however, according to Spooner, her Instagram handle was left on the car.
A video previously posted by Spooner, who has more than half a million followers across her social media platforms, indicated that the die-cast model was part of Jada Toys' Pink Slips line, and the toy maker's website states that the car, a 1:24 scale model, becomes available for pre-order on Saturday afternoon. That said, the $25 model was already sold out by 7 a.m. Saturday.
Spooner's Instagram bio states she is an Arizona resident who, in addition to the Camaro ZL1, also owns a BMW G80 M3 and a BMW E36 M3.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Drive
37 minutes ago
- The Drive
What a Bag of Chips Taught Me About Optima's Battery Tech at Pikes Peak
The latest car news, reviews, and features. Car racing has long been hailed as the ultimate test bed for burgeoning automotive technologies, with everything from aerodynamics to paddle shifters making their way from high-tech racing machines to consumer cars. But with so much of that already done, it's hard to imagine what, exactly, is left to learn. To find out, Optima Batteries invited me to the 2025 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. There, a fleet of BBI Autosport Porsche race cars would be outfitted with the company's OrangeTop QH6 lithium battery, and I was determined to discover exactly how relevant the iconic 12.42-mile run up America's Mountain can be in modern battery development. Interestingly enough, it didn't take some complex concept or high-tech machine to teach me why Pikes Peak presents an enormous challenge to a vital component like a car battery. In fact, all it took was a silly bag of potato chips. Elizabeth Blackstock But first things first: Why is racing relevant to a company like Optima Batteries? Tom Downie, vice president of communications at Clarios (which owns Optima Batteries), explained just that. Motorsport 'gives us a chance to push some of our products more than the average consumer might, and all of that [research and development] goes into our regular products.' This approach may include not only appealing to performance-oriented aftermarket customers who want to upgrade their stock equipment, but also monitoring how OEMs are developing certain elements of their machines through racing and pitching Optima products to them if their technology falls short. Elizabeth Blackstock, Optima From a sales angle, that makes sense. But to understand what, exactly, can be learned at an event like the PPIHC—or, as Daryl Brockman, director of global sales, marketing, and product planning at Optima added—the King of the Hammers and the Baja 1000—you must look at this race's extremely unique environment. Sure, you want your race cars to be durable, but Brockman explained that the PPIHC raises a frankly fascinating challenge, one that I experienced myself with the aforementioned salty snack. I bought a bag of chips down in Colorado Springs, which sits at an altitude of just over 6,000 feet. It sat, unopened, in the front seat with me as I crossed the race's starting line at 9,390 feet, and made the slow ascent up Pikes Peak to the summit, which stands at 14,115 feet of elevation. A sealed container like that bag of chips will undergo a wild change: It swells and expands. That's because the air pressure inside the bag remains the same as it was when it was sealed closer to sea level, while the air pressure outside the bag decreases. The internal air wants to push outside of the bag, which causes some extreme surface tension. Scientists call this Boyle's Law. Optima Just like the chip bag, batteries are also fully sealed containers, and the altitude change during the race is going to impact the battery the same way it impacts your chip bag: Namely, as you ascend higher up a mountain, the external air pressure is going to drop, but the internal air pressure in your battery will remain the same. Pressure changes can impact the structural integrity of a sealed lithium battery pack, which can cause your battery to leak or even explode, while decreases in cooling efficiency mean your battery can overheat. It should go without saying that all of these impacts are bad, but they become particularly concerning when those batteries are mated to purpose-built cars that are trying to race up a huge mountain in 10 minutes or less. 'Our batteries actually have a breather valve that allows the pressure inside the battery to equalize compared to the atmospheric air pressure,' Brockman told me. 'It's one of the small details that our batteries have that some of our other competitors may not have considered.' Elizabeth Blackstock And it's a detail that can't be replicated through lab conditions—not really. Brockman pointed out that the OrangeTop QH6 spent a year and a half in the lab, during which time the Optima development crew worked out any initial kinks. The next step is actually crafting pre-production prototypes that Optima has distributed to race teams and other enthusiasts who will really put those batteries to the test. 'A lab test is a controlled environment, so the assumptions don't always match reality,' Brockman explained. 'You'll have assumptions on how much power it takes to start the vehicle, which can vary wildly from one vehicle to another; the amount of cranking time; the differences in how a vehicle starts when the engine's cold versus when it's hot. Sometimes you'll find things outside of your initial assumptions, and those are the things we learned along the way to make sure that we have a product that will always perform.' Elizabeth Blackstock, Optima A breather valve is a fairly simple feature; under sea-level atmospheric conditions, this valve remains a sealed component of the battery. But as you climb further up a mountain and the pressure inside the battery builds, it compresses the valve and allows that air pressure to escape. When the air pressure inside and outside of the battery is equalized, the valve shuts. If my chip bag had a similar feature, it wouldn't look like it was bursting at the seams up at the summit of Pikes Peak. The valve may be small, but the OrangeTop QH6 is also outfitted with a load of sensors that monitor battery health, all of which can be transmitted to an app on your phone via Bluetooth. Without the breather valve, Optima could see exactly how sudden changes in elevation and atmospheric pressure compromised battery integrity and lifespan. Add in the breather valve, and the data showed a dramatically different story, though the Optima crew was reluctant to hand off any proprietary details. So, while the 2025 running of the PPIHC was the first time Optima had officially debuted its OrangeTop QH6 battery in a race car as a final product, it wasn't the first time a car had carried some version of that battery up a mountain; its adventure-focused product testers had been enthusiastically scaling summits for about a year before the company knew it had a battery that could withstand the pressures of competition. The difference is that now, Optima has completed the testing of its prototypes and feels confident enough to offer it to consumers. Got a tip? Email us at tips@
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The 5 Most Interesting Analyst Questions From Cars.com's Q1 Earnings Call
first quarter results were met with a negative market reaction as both revenue and adjusted profit missed Wall Street expectations. Management attributed the challenges to external factors, especially industry-wide uncertainty stemming from new automotive tariffs, which affected both dealer and automaker (OEM) advertising commitments. CEO Alex Vetter noted, 'Late in the quarter, there were early signs from a handful of OEMs looking to more closely manage their media commitments.' CFO Sonia Jain pointed to ongoing cost discipline, but also acknowledged that severance-related costs and integration efforts weighed on operating margins. Is now the time to buy CARS? Find out in our full research report (it's free). Revenue: $179 million vs analyst estimates of $180.2 million (flat year on year, 0.6% miss) Adjusted EBITDA: $50.72 million vs analyst estimates of $47.48 million (28.3% margin, 6.8% beat) Operating Margin: 3.6%, down from 7.1% in the same quarter last year Dealer Customers: 19,250, in line with the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $745.2 million While we enjoy listening to the management's commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls are the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Naved Khan (B. Riley Securities) asked about the impact of tariffs on both OEM/dealer ad spending and used car volumes. CEO Alex Vetter responded that while tariffs drove higher consumer traffic and dealer engagement, OEM advertising visibility became less predictable. Rajat Gupta (JPMorgan) questioned what drove the margin upside in Q1. CFO Sonia Jain credited lower-than-expected integration costs and operational discipline but noted that benefits from targeted headcount reductions would be more visible in future quarters. Tom White (Davidson) inquired about the sequential improvement in the marketplace business. Vetter explained that dealer pullbacks in Q4 reversed as consumer demand stayed strong, leading some dealers to return to the platform in February and March. Marvin Fong (BTIG) asked about Dealer Club's rapid user growth and monetization strategy. Vetter highlighted strong onboarding and integration with AccuTrade but said monetization on the seller side would be considered after building further market share. Joe Spak (UBS) pressed for clarity on visibility into OEM ad spending. Jain acknowledged ongoing uncertainty, noting that small shifts in OEM/national spend could meaningfully impact guidance, and that commitments remain largely short term. In the coming quarters, our analysts will be watching (1) how effectively converts its pipeline for AccuTrade and Dealer Club into recurring revenue, (2) the stability of OEM and dealer advertising commitments amid continued tariff-driven uncertainty, and (3) ability to sustain consumer engagement through new editorial content and product enhancements. Execution on renegotiating legacy web service agreements and integration of acquired platforms will also be monitored for progress. currently trades at $11.87, up from $11.32 just before the earnings. In the wake of this quarter, is it a buy or sell? Find out in our full research report (it's free). Market indices reached historic highs following Donald Trump's presidential victory in November 2024, but the outlook for 2025 is clouded by new trade policies that could impact business confidence and growth. While this has caused many investors to adopt a "fearful" wait-and-see approach, we're leaning into our best ideas that can grow regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate. Take advantage of Mr. Market by checking out our Top 6 Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025). Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,754% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Auto Thefts Are Down in the US — Could This Be the New Normal?
For the first time in over 40 years, vehicle thefts in the U.S. have taken a significant downturn. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), stolen vehicle reports fell by nearly 17% in 2024. Last year, more than a million cars were stolen nationwide, but that number dropped to 850,708 in 2024. This sharp decline is a major shift, especially after years of rising theft rates. While vehicle security is still a concern, this progress shows that preventative efforts are starting to pay off. In a press release, David J. Glawe, President and CEO of NICB, shared that, "The overall decrease in stolen vehicles nationwide is a testament to the hard work and collaboration between law enforcement, multi-jurisdictional auto theft task forces, governing bodies, vehicle manufacturers, and NICB. Collectively, these groups used data and intelligence to develop actionable strategies to help local authorities investigate and prosecute offenders and to prevent vehicle theft from occurring in the first place." Some states made particularly strong gains in reducing car thefts. Washington saw the most significant improvement, with a 32% decrease, followed closely by Nevada at 31% and Oregon at 30%. Nebraska and Colorado also reported impressive declines of 29% and 26%, respectively. These reductions didn't happen by chance: many states have ramped up law enforcement initiatives, and automakers have introduced stronger anti-theft measures to protect drivers. One of the biggest factors in this decline has been the response to the surge in Hyundai and Kia vehicle thefts. In previous years, these brands became prime targets because certain models lacked engine immobilizers, making them easier to steal. After a wave of thefts and lawsuits, Hyundai and Kia took action, offering free software updates, ignition cylinder protectors, and reimbursement programs for additional security measures. The results were striking—vehicle thefts involving Hyundai and Kia models dropped by 37.5% in 2024, proving that these security measures had a real impact. Even with this good news, vehicle theft remains a costly issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that car theft costs Americans more than $8 billion annually. That's why it's still important to take precautions. Simple steps like always locking your car, keeping valuables out of sight, and parking in well-lit areas can make a big difference. While technology is improving, personal awareness and preventive habits remain key to keeping vehicles safe. The decline in vehicle thefts is a positive sign, but it doesn't mean the problem is solved. Continued advancements in anti-theft technology, law enforcement efforts, and public awareness campaigns will be necessary to maintain this progress. For now, though, 2024 has shown that smart security measures and collective action can make a real difference in protecting vehicles and reducing crime.
