Suspect accused of stealing Shaquille O’Neal’s custom Range Rover in Georgia was arrested in New York; the vehicle is still missing
A man suspected of stealing basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal’s $180,000 customized Range Rover six weeks ago has been arrested in Mount Vernon, after a car associated with him had triggered a license plate reader.
According to Mount Vernon Police Deputy Chief Gregory Addison, the suspect was arrested around 8 p.m. on Friday, December 5th. Addison said officers received a license plate reader alert for a vehicle that might contain a wanted party with a warrant out of Lumpkin County, Georgia. The alert was for a specific South Carolina license plate. Officers located the vehicle within the city and watched as the driver walked into a local business. They followed the driver inside, detained him, and verified that he was the party wanted in Georgia.
Anthony Del Rosario, with addresses in Yonkers and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was placed under arrest for the extraditable warrant and is currently being held at the Westchester County Jail as a “Fugitive From Justice,” the New York State designation for someone wanted in another state. The vehicle he was driving was impounded because it was not registered; authorities confirmed it was not O’Neal’s Range Rover.
Authorities tell Black Westchester that the stolen vehicle has not been recovered and is believed to be somewhere in the Middle East.
The arrest follows weeks of investigation into the disappearance of O’Neal’s customized 2025 Range Rover, which was taken from a Dahlonega firm on October 20th. The SUV, worth around $180,000, was meant to be delivered to Louisiana for O’Neal to use at an LSU game that weekend, but it never came.
According to the affidavit by a Lumpkin Sheriff’s investigator, an accomplice impersonated Effortless Motors of California’s transport provider by using a phony phone number. This allowed the thieves to change the pickup instructions and submit a phony certificate of insurance, prompting Effortless to accept the car’s release.
The owner of Effortless, a Riverside, Calif.-based firm that has customized multiple vehicles for the 7-foot-1 NBA Hall of Famer, offered a $10,000 prize for the car’s return following the theft, indicating that the transportation company had been hacked.
Ahmad Abdelrahman, a spokesperson for Effortless Motors, said the vehicle was removed from the shop under false pretenses. He said the company arranged transport through FirstLine Trucking LLC, which later claimed its system had been hacked.
Abdelrahman said the arrest is a major breakthrough in what appears to be a large, coordinated criminal operation.
MVPD Deputy Chief Addison said that Mount Vernon police were notified about 8 p.m. that night that the car associated with Del Rosario, with South Carolina plates, had triggered a license plate reader.
After officers found the car and saw Del Rosario walking into a business on East Lincoln Avenue just east of Hutchinson Boulevard, they followed him inside and detained him. Once they confirmed he was the wanted man and the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office sought his return, he was arrested on a fugitive from justice charge and held at the county jail.
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