Every parent’s worst nightmare is to have their car taken with their child or children inside. Unfortunately, a father in Wisconsin had that very thing happen recently. But his quick-thinking 8-year-old daughter called her mother, helping authorities to find her and her little sister quickly.
Watch a BMW get stolen as the owner inflates its tires at a gas station.
The father had just gone through a car wash and was drying off his vehicle when two strangers approached him and asked for directions. While he was explaining the directions to one person, the other climbed in the car, turned on the engine, and took off.
As covered by ABC News, not only was there the 8-year-old in the car but also a 2-year-old. Instead of just panicking, the older of the two used her dad’s phone to call her mother. By that time the thief had ditched the car and ran off, probably not wanting to get caught kidnapping two kids as well as stealing a vehicle.
Using the phone’s tracking feature, the father was able to find where his daughters and the car had been ditched. While obviously rattled, the two girls were unharmed.
We’ve seen many cases of thieves swiping cars with kids inside and they sadly don’t always end well. Thankfully this story had a relatively happy ending.
There are steps you can take to prevent this sort of carjacking from happening. Thieves exploit the keyless ignition on your vehicle, so when you’re standing outside it at a gas station, car wash, etc. keep your keys out of the vehicle and on you. Put them in a Faraday pouch – they’re cheap and easy to find online – that way the signal from the fob doesn’t transmit to the car so the engine won’t start.
It’s a sad reality that everyone has to be so vigilant these days.
Image via ABC News
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