WATCH: Group steals car from Lincoln woman’s driveway, hits mailbox on the way out
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Lincoln woman woke up one morning last week to find her Jeep missing from her driveway near 27th Street and Pine Lake Road.
Cari Wise, the owner, said she immediately checked her security cameras to see what happened.
“Some kids had come from the east and the west, and there was a black pickup also involved,” she said. “And then my Jeep was gone.”
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Her neighbor, Alex Mayse, also caught the whole thing on camera from across the street.
In the video, you can see a black pickup driving by with three people walking alongside it.
One of them gets inside the Jeep, which was left unlocked. After the vehicle started, the other two get in.
The Jeep then backs up, hitting Mayse’s mailbox before speeding off.
“For as young as they are, I don’t understand how they got that coordinated,” Mayse said.
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Wise said while the vehicle was unlocked, there were no keys left inside, so she doesn’t know how the group got it started.
Since the start of the year, about 140 vehicles have been stolen in Lincoln, 46 of which were left unlocked, according to the Lincoln Police Department.
Police have been searching for the Jeep but haven’t found anything yet.
SEE ALSO: Victim of car break-in shares story amid rash of auto thefts in southeast Nebraska
Wise said Friday is the deadline to find the vehicle before it has to be totaled.
“I had insurance and comprehensive and stuff, so they paid for a rental for a little bit,” she said. “It’s going to be hard.”
Wise and Mayse said the neighborhood is usually safe, but other cars have been broken into before.
Wise said a few valuables had been left inside the car, including a tow rope, a socket wrench set and a $75 bottle of tanning lotion.
“Just things I normally take with me every single day,” she said. “It’s my routine. And so now my routine is shifted, and it kind of throws you off a little bit.”
The two said this is a good reminder to secure your car and your home.
“I would definitely tell people to invest in a camera,” Mayse said. “The camera I got was only $35.”
Wise said, “Be smarter than I was and lock your doors.”
