Mapping out a basic strategy, the thieves scout out their vehicular targets; all of which have been given female code names. The plan goes smoothly – with even some of the more eclectic vehicles acquired with relative ease – but obstacles mount. Chief of these difficulties is a yellow, 1973 Ford Mustang, code named "Eleanor". The first "Eleanor" Pace comes across is occupied by its driver. So, he locates this car to steal it from the owner's house after dark and subsequently discovers it is owned by H.D. Smith, Harold Dwight Smith, a corrupt senior manager for a large insurance corporation who has screwed over many people in the county. An intoxicated Smith witnesses his Mustang being stolen from the garage and gives chase in his other car where he himself gets busted by the cops soon afterwards. Pace then returns the Mustang back to Smith's home to make it look like, in the eyes of the cops, that the car was never stolen and Smith was simply out on a drunken joyride.