Officer: Volkswagen charged family to track hijacked SUV and child

Investigators responding to a violent carjacking in Libertyville, Illinois, on Thursday knew they were racing against time. At large wasa suspect in a Volkswagen Atlas stolen from a woman’s driveway — with her 2-year-old son still in the back seat.

As officers searched the roads, a Lake County Sheriff ’s Office detective thought to contact Volkswagen and locate the vehicle using the manufacturer’s Car-net service, Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli told The Washington Post.

They hit a problem: A Volkswagen representative told investigators the vehicle’s “courtesy trial period” for the remote-access service had

ended, and they would need to pay $150 to reactivate it and get the SUV’S location, Covelli said.

“The detective basically pled with the representative, letting them know this was a life-or-death situation,”covelli said, but the representative didn’t budge.

Eventually, a member of the woman’s extended family footed the bill, according to Covelli. They provided a credit card number that investigators used to pay the $150 fee and access Volkswagen’s GPS data for the stolen vehicle. But 30 minutes had passed by then, and the stolen SUV and toddler had already been located by officers in the field, leaving investigators and the family relieved but frustrated.

“Most companies are very good with providing information (when) it could save lives,” Covelli said.

A Volkswagen spokesperson expressed condolences for the family in a statement and said the company has a procedure in place to address emergency requests from law enforcement.

“Unfortunately, in this instance, there was a serious breach of the process,” the statement read.