Car Thefts Plague Little Village Neighborhood, Residents Say
(CBS) – You park your car and you expect it to be there when you get back, right?
Folks in one Chicago neighborhood say that's not what happens where they live. They tell CBS 2's Mike Parker they want action to stop the crooks.
Residents say there have been as many as four car thefts in the past week in the Little Village neighborhood near 30th and Kostner.
Irma Sandoval and her father were ripped off Monday. Their Toyota was taken in broad daylight. They've filed a police report.
"I was coming back from school, and I saw the car there and my dad came from work and it wasn't there anymore. In about 30 minutes, the car was stolen," Irma says.
Neighbors hope to put some pressure on law enforcement.
"We'd like to see more police put in highly crime-saturated areas, more surveillance cameras," community activist Raul Montez, Jr. says.
Fortieth Ward Ald. Ricky Munoz says he's already put new surveillance cameras on Kostner, the epicenter of the wave of car thefts.
"We're all worried, and that's why we work with police to try and prevent the crime," he says.
Later Friday, the Chicago Police Department said many of the car thefts appear to be linked to bandit tow trucks operating out of a Little Village scrap yard.
It's where the remains of several stolen Chicago school buses were found earlier this month.
