PLATTE CITY, Mo. -- A hot car became even hotter when police said a potential customer stole it in a scam that involved quick hands and a spare key.

It happened on Oct. 9 at Hendrick Cars KCI at 9400 N.W. Prairie View Road, a lot of exotic cars for sale, including a yellow 2005 Chevrolet Corvette worth $28,000.

"We came in and we're like, 'Hey, the Corvette's gone.' It's not like, you can't miss it. It's bright yellow," said Jeff Goepferich, of Hendrick Cars.

When Derek L. Rudroff, 27, of Kansas City, Mo., asked to see the car in early October, the salesman didn't think anything of it.

Rudroff took the key and started the ignition while chatting with the salesman, then he gave the salesman back the keys and left.

"(We) walk out to the lot and there's no broken glass, nothing out there," Goepferich said. "(We) go back and we check the keys, and we're like, 'This is not a Corvette key.'"

Police said Rudroff switched the keys and came back later that night after hours and drove the car away.

Rudroff was arrested a few weeks later after police found the Corvette abandoned in Lee's Summit, Mo. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged Rudroff with stealing.

Salesmen at Hendrick said they were making changes so they wouldn't be victimized in the same way again.

"What we've done differently is we've started using a zip tie verses a key chain, so we don't think a crook's going to carry a pair of wire cutters with him and a zip tie with him to switch it out," Goepferich said.

Police said Rudroff had a history with automobiles and crimes, and the salesman said when Rudroff came in to look at the Corvette, he was driving a Mustang, the same Mustang stolen from their Shawnee Mission store earlier in the year.