Woman's car found after being stolen from Streeterville garage, but suspects remain at large
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Louise Rehling's car was stolen in the middle of the night and driven more than 250 miles before police tracked it down.
It may have been lost for good if not for a little air support from police.
As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported Monday, Rehling's car was one of four cars stolen this past Thursday morning from a secured garage with a 24/7 in Streeterville. But Chicago Police have already made a big dent in recovering the cars.
"They jumped out, and they took four cars that were on the first floor," Rehling said.
The last time Rehling had seen her Honda Civic was last Wednesday. On Thursday morning, she woke up to a call saying her car had been stolen.
"He was the overnight attendant on his own, and they came in, and there were five of them," she said.
Rehling showed Hickey how five masked men entered the garage on East Delaware Place with one car around 3:45 a.m. on Thursday, robbed the overnight attendant, and drove off with four new sets of wheels.
"It happened within a two-minute timeframe, so it was fast," she said.
It was what happened from there that really surprised - and impressed - the Streeterville resident.
Police were tracking her car's location with license plate readers - eventually calling in the help of the Detroit-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations unit.
The CBP unit brough in their highly specialized helicopter pilots — featured by the CBS 2 Investigators earlier this month.
"The helicopter actually tracked my car for about 20 minutes, I was told," Rehling said, "and then obviously, the driver - the thief – knew he was being tracked, and he abandoned my car so the police were able to pick it up."
We were there this afternoon when Rehling was finally reunited with her car after a trip to the Honda Service Center.
There was not a scratch on the car - although the odometer had an extra 250 miles. Rehling and she's, oddly, short two of her golf clubs.
As we have been reporting for months, violent crime in Streeterville is up in 2022 — with robberies holding steady the past few years. There have been 31 robberies so far this year.
Rehling says she is vigilant, and she is very grateful for comprehensive search from CPD. But there is a problem, she said.
"The problem is that no one was actually arrested," Rehling said. "Three of our four cars were recovered, and nobody has been arrested."
The CPD would only say Monday that no one is in custody for the thefts and the robbery — and an active investigation is still under way.