Facebook Group Reunites Owners With Stolen Or Carjacked Cars That Were Dumped In Englewood Alley
CHICAGO (CBS) -- We have told you about case after case of carjackings in Chicago over the past several months, and some victims have now been reunited with their cars.
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported Tuesday night, a shot-up bright orange Dodge Charger was found stashed in an alley at 59th Street and Shields Avenue in Englewood, and it was not the only one.
"So there was one, two, three, four cars that were able to be captured last night," said Matthew Nalett, founder of the Chicago Stolen Car Directory Facebook group.
Nalett said the recovered cars belong to members the Facebook, which is dedicated to tracking down stolen cars.
Late Tuesday, tire marks from where the cars were ditched were all that remained, as the cars went back to their owners the night before.
"I'm happy all the people got their car back," Nalett said.
"They cut the power to the vehicle. Why? Because they were trying to stop us from tracking it. But guess what - trackers have their own power source," Edgar Luciano said in a video clip he posted.
Luciano tracked down and recovered a Jeep stolen from the dealership where he works.
"The police basically tracked it to an abandoned garage in the city. It's an $80,000 car," Luciano told De Mar. "Insurance or not, it's not something you want to lose."
The bulk of the cars were found in the open, lined up against an abandoned house for anyone to see or alert police. But that never happened.
The cars were only returned once Facebook sleuths got involved.
"There's like a whole Dodge dealership behind the house and nobody calls," Nalett said.
Some of the cars recovered Monday night needed to be towed, because whoever stole them reprogrammed the key. That added another layer of frustration, but at least everyone was reunited with their cars.