Montana Drifter’s Rampage: $155,000 in Shattered Dreams at Salem’s Car Lots

In the haze of a September night, Brian Del Werner, a 32-year-old drifter from Kalispell, Montana, carved a jagged scar through Salem’s automotive dreams.

Picture it: a man, unsteady with purpose or liquor, prowling the lots of Mercedes & Acura on Commercial Street Southeast. On September 11, under the cold glare of security cameras, he danced a wrecking waltz across 35 gleaming vehicles, leaving $55,000 in shattered glass and dented pride. The dealership, a temple of polished chrome, became his canvas of chaos.

Three nights later, Werner struck again, this time at BMW of Salem on Van Ness Avenue Northeast. Another 35 cars—sleek, hopeful machines—fell to his frenzy, racking up $100,000 in ruin. Paint scratched, windows cracked, and the lot itself bruised, as if the earth recoiled from his touch. Twenty victims, their wallets lighter, their trust thinner, surfaced in the aftermath.

Portland police snared him on September 15, not just for this vehicular carnage but for a DUI and a Montana warrant whispering of gunfire and similar sins in Flathead County. Werner, a man running from one state’s law to another’s, now faces multiple counts of first-degree mischief in Multnomah County, with extradition to Montana looming like a slow storm.

The Salem Police Department, ever meticulous, calls for victims to file supplemental reports online—case numbers SMP25079703 for Mercedes Acura, SMP25080551 for BMW. The lots stand quieter now, but the echo of Werner’s rampage lingers, a sour note in Salem’s mechanical symphony.

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