A flyer for a car dealership has many people -- including Winnipeg Police -- saying it sends a distasteful and dangerous message.

The flyer -- that went out in a local newspaper Tuesday -- makes light of auto theft with a cartoon of an auto thief driving a stolen car, running a red light and mowing down a police officer and an elderly woman.

The flyer is for a liquidation sale at the McDougall Auto Superstore. It encourages people to 'Steal a deal off their lot'

The ad also depicts a passenger in the back seat drinking, while another passenger is vomiting out the car window.

A tally on the side of the vehicle implies the vehicle has already been used to hit five pedestrians.

The ad comes out only a couple of weeks after a taxi driver was killed when his cab was t-boned by a stolen SUV at Portage Ave. and Maryland Street.

And in February a police officer was forced to shoot at a stolen car that was trying to mow him down in the parking lot of the Polo Park Shopping Centre.

A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Police Service tells CTV News the ad is inappropriate and has called to complain to the dealership to complain.

Dealership has pulled ad

McDougall Auto tells CTV News it's sorry and has since pulled the ad, which was originally planned to run another couple of days.

"We didn't think that anyone was going to take offence to it," said Sam Melquist. "It was a cartoon drawing -- just trying to spark up something different."

Winnipeg has battled a stolen auto problem for years. Winnipeg has been declared the stolen auto capital of Canada.

One local ethics professor said the creators of the ad are looking to use a serious and deadly crime to sell cars.

"That's really sad that some business owners are lacking in social responsibility and are willing to exploit these topics to grab our attention," said Arthur Schafer at the University of Manitoba.

He said distasteful ads can backfire for a business. "What we really want to say is if you're willing to sink to this level in your advertisements -- we as a community are going to react very negatively," he said.

This scenario has played out in Winnipeg before. In January, Ford Canada pulled its ads in Manitoba and Saskatchewan which contained the line, 'Drive It Like It's Stolen'.

With a report from CTV's Rachel Lagac�.