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USA Today via Reuters

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USA Today via Reuters

Over a month ago, Shaquille O’Neal had perhaps the biggest setback in one of his favorite hobbies. A self-proclaimed motorhead, he’s gone from Frankensteining cars to having his friends at Effortless Motors ship him his favorite wheels almost every month. During one of those moves, his newest Range Rover went missing with a strong suspicion it was stolen. Now the first arrest in the retrieval of a custom Big Diesel vehicle has been made.

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Anthony Del Rosario, 33, was arrested in connection with Shaq’s stolen Range Rover. He’s under an extraditable warrant and being held at Westchester County, New York Jail while he is wanted for a crime in the state of Georgia.

The arrest is hardly a positive outcome. The $180,000 Range Rover is still missing. Authorities believe that it has been shipped overseas. Maybe the Middle East. The reason for this suspicion was not clarified.

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O’Neal splits his time between Georgia, filming Inside the NBA, his residence in Dallas, closer to his mother and children, Florida, where he spent most of his NBA career, Las Vegas, where most of his business empire operates, and everywhere in between. His recent activity is to call upon California-based Effortless Motors to have a custom vehicle delivered to where he wants. The Range Rover was being transported from Georgia to Louisiana when O’Neal had an appearance at LSU in October.

The vehicle never arrived and Effortless Motors launched a search for it. They even offered a $10,000 cash reward for any information.

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Small relief for Shaquille O’Neal

Authorities believed the 4x NBA Champion was the victim of a series of a larger crime pattern. The transportation company’s shipping site was allegedly hacked into and the transportation details were changed. That allows the thieves to falsely receive the delivery and take the vehicles. Shaq is one of hundreds of victims who’ve reported their vehicles stolen in this manner.

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In Shaq’s case, at least, investigators were quick to identify multiple suspects and issue warrants. They traced one of them to Rosario in New York.

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Rosario was arrested around 8 p.m. on December 5. Officials from the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Department in Georgie and the Mount Vernon Police Department, New York, confirmed details about the arrest on December 9.

They said officers received a license plate reader alert for a vehicle that might contain a wanted party with a warrant out of Lumpkin County. The vehicle was located, and the driver was identified. Cops followed the driver into a local business and detained him. After confirming the detainee was wanted in Georgia, he was placed under arrest.

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The vehicle he was driving was impounded because it was not registered. But it was not Shaq’s Range Rover. This stolen vehicle had South Carolina plates, which raised suspicions.

It remains to be seen if Del Rosario will be sent to Georgia or tried in New York. Meanwhile, police are still looking for more suspects in this case.

Shaq has not commented on the situation at all. But Effortless Motors can feel a little optimistic about this latest development. “I’ve been working with a detective throughout the whole time. They just arrested one of the main ringleaders in this whole operation. It’s a big sting. They’re taking, like, 40 cars a week,” a spokesperson for the dealership said. They also said that there is a second suspect who is overseas but detectives are close to arresting him.

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The spokesperson confirmed that Shaq is aware of the arrest and is relieved. It also relieves fans who were upset on O’Neal’s behalf. The big guy is known for his philanthropy, including buying entire cars for promising young athletes. They don’t want him to be the victim of this crime. For now, it’s a waiting game for any updates on Shaq’s SUV.

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