WATCH: Man Pumping Gas As His Car Is Stolen
(CBS) – A crime of opportunity caught on camera: A man pumping his gas in suburban Hillside watches his car get stolen in just seconds.
CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reports.
Surveillance video from a Hillside gas station on Manheim Road shows Felipe Flores filling up his VW Passat Sunday morning around 10:30.
Within seconds, a man wearing a red vest hops out of another vehicle and gets into the already running VW. Both cars bolt, as Flores watches.
"I was in shock because I didn't know how did it happen or where they came from," he says.
Hillside Police Det. Carlo Viscioni says the people who pulled off the bold carjacking are part of a much larger ring targeting suburban dealerships and stealing cars any way they can.
The purple Ford used in the heist was stolen in an armed carjacking just days before in Chicago, Viscioni says.
A similar gas station car theft happened in Naperville in recent days. The cars involved in the Hillside theft have not been recovered.
Motorists should always shut engines off and lock vehicle doors when at the gas station or running quick errands.