A man in Ohio stole an Audi from a Hyundai dealership while a passenger was sleeping in the backseat on Saturday, January 15. That passenger was reportedly taking a nap while the owner of the 2012 Audi A4 spoke to someone at Taylor Hyundai about trading in that same Audi. Police claimed the car thief opened the driver door, stepped in and proceeded to speed away from the Hyundai lot.
The Audi’s owner started tracking the car, and called the police immediately. She gave police the car’s location throughout the incident, but even if she’d been unable to track the Audi, the passenger in the backseat had a phone, too, and used it to relay the car’s location, along with sending texts about the thief’s “driving and threatening behaviors.” Talk about a rude awakening.
Between the owner and passenger both tracking the car, police were able to trace the Audi from the dealership in Findlay, Ohio to the nearby city of Tiffin, where another police department was called in to stop the carjacker. This prompted a pursuit of the white Audi along U.S. 224, heading eastbound.
The thief eventually turned south during the car chase, onto State Route 100. It’s possible that driving really fast in a straight line while being tracked by two separate people — one of which was now a hostage — wasn’t really working out.
Tiffin police claimed to have “initiated a traffic stop,” but the carjacker kept driving. Police also claim they finally stopped him by crashing into the Audi:
Officer’s pursued as the vehicle continued southbound onto S.R. 100. The pursuit continued through the Melmore area and SR100 to the Crawford County line. Shortly after crossing over the county line, Tiffin Officers performed a slow speed vehicle termination maneuver, ending the pursuit.
The passenger-turned-hostage was treated for minor injuries after the crash, according to the New York Post.
The carjacker and a Seneca County deputy also sustained minor injuries, which were treated onsite. The carjacker was then taken into custody and charged with “felony [Aggravated] robbery, Kidnapping, Theft of a motor vehicle, and fleeing & eluding police,” according to Tiffin PD. This feels like disastrously bad luck, and I can’t help but feel bad for the Audi owner. So much for that trade-in.