BOARDMAN — Lee Murphy waited years to find just the right model of sports car, his wife Kristie Murphy said.

A couple of years ago, he found the Plum Crazy 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT at Sarchione Auto Gallery in Canton. Kristie said the $60,000 vehicle was driven only a handful of times every year in good weather, and it only had about 6,000 miles on it when it was stolen from the Southern Park Mall parking lot Sept. 2.

“The thing that scares us the most is that my husband’s wallet was in the car,” she said. “His ID, and a key to our home and garage and his other car, his daily driver. We’ve changed all our locks, but still you don’t know.”

A marketing and social media professional by day, Kristie took to Facebook to share pictures of the car and details about the theft. The community responded, sharing her post more than 500 times, and many others have reached out to let her know she’s not alone.

Car thefts have been a big problem in Mahoning County lately, and Boardman seems to have seen a disproportionate share, being the county’s largest commercial district.

But just since the end of August, three other late-model Dodge muscle cars have either been stolen or targeted for theft. Local thieves seem to have moved on from Kias and Hyundais, which were the popular targets in recent years.

In late August, a Poland man’s custom 2021 Challenger was stolen from his driveway. On Aug. 31, a couple’s 2016 Challenger Scat Pack was stolen from the parking lot of the Best Western on Tiffany Boulevard.

“They were originally from Poland and live in Georgia now, and they were just here for the Canfield Fair,” Kristie said.

Only a few days after the Murphys’ car was stolen another man saw someone trying to get into his 2014 Dodge Charger at a Boardman restaurant. He chased the man off and watched him get into a white SUV.

Boardman police Chief Todd Werth said “there are no more cars being stolen in Boardman than anywhere else.” However, he said the muscle cars are sought after and more frequently targeted.

“I don’t know why they’re so expensive, but they’re so easy to steal,” Kristie said. “If I’d known this stuff was going on in Boardman, I never would have let him leave that car.”

In addition to the thefts, Kristie pointed to other stolen cars and a recent carjacking at Dunkin Donuts. Arrests were made in that Aug. 8 case after the thieves attempted to steal a car from the parking lot of Boost Mobile on Market Street near Midlothian Boulevard a few days later. The woman saw her car being stolen and tried to stop them, but they dragged her through the parking lot before getting away temporarily. Later that day, they were arrested at Walmart on Doral Drive and linked to the Dunkin Donuts carjacking.

Kristie said that while her family lives in Alliance, she works in Austintown and they have family in Boardman, and shop there often. That day, she was meeting her son after football practice to get him new shoes for school. Lee was not going to meet them but decided at the last minute that it was a perfect night for a drive in the Challenger, and he surprised them.

They met at Dick’s Sporting Goods, where their son didn’t find the shoes he was looking for, so they went to Champ’s Sports at the mall. They parked in the lot in front of Buffalo Wild Wings, and Lee put the car at the back of the lot away from other cars, something he always did to avoid dents or scratches.

A statement the Murphys released states that they were in the mall less than an hour.

“I know it was 6:48 p.m., because I got one of the automatic calls from the school reminding us that the school year was starting tomorrow,” she said.

At the same time, Lee clicked his key fob to make sure the car was locked and marveled again at the beautiful purple color of his car.

Eight minutes after they went into the mall, a witness called police to report that a tall, light-skinned black male was standing next to the car with a coat hanger. When the Murphys came back out about 7:35 p.m., the car was gone.

Kristie said police told her that they passed the car on York Avenue on their way to respond to the call. The officer told her that by the time she was able to safely turn around, the Challenger was lost in traffic.

Video surveillance from Buffalo Wild Wings and 7 17 Credit Union also have not been helpful.

Kristie said her husband is just plain depressed by the theft, though she says they haven’t given up hope completely. They appreciate all the outreach from others in the community.

“The community is trying to help from some social media networking,” she said. “We’ve all just been commiserating.”

She said she hopes police can help her family and the other victims to recover their stolen cars.