Sam Royko's Car Was Stolen By Carjackers In January; He Just Got A $100 Speed Camera Ticket From After The Heist
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Things just went from bad to worse for one victim of Chicago's carjacking crisis. Sam Royko's car was taken two months ago, now he's getting hit with a speeding ticket that the carjacker got while driving the stolen car.
CBS 2's Brandon Merano reports Royko just got the final determination basically saying he has to pay the ticket. Talk about adding insult to injury.
On Jan. 12, Royko's girlfriend was carjacked in broad daylight.
"It was tough when I was talking to my girlfriend about it today," he said.
Now, more than two months later, a $100 speeding ticket showed up in the mail on Saturday, thanks to the same people who stole his car while his girlfriend was behind the wheel.
"I was pretty blown away," Royko said. "Of course, my reaction when I got this was, 'Are you kidding me?' I just got a ticket for my girlfriend getting carjacked from like six hours later."
That's right, six hours after his girlfriend was forced from the car, speed cameras ticketed his car as the carjacker was driving.
"If it is that these red light cameras can do that, you'd like to think that they see my license plate, they ping that, and they go, 'Oh, this is a stolen car. We need to do something,'" Royko said.
Instead, Royko got hit with $100 ticket. His car was recovered damaged days after it was stolen.
"What's going on here? Why does this keep happening? Why are we having these problems?" Royko said.
Now Royko, a lawyer by day, is starting a campaign to help stop carjackings throughout Chicago.
"We have like a seven-page outline we're working on, after meeting with research organizations – organizations on the North, West and South Side – and trying to figure out what can we do better; how can we improve here? I think the city needs to be asking the same questions," he said.
Royko said it's going to take systemic change to solve the carjacking crisis.
He also plans to fight that $100 fine.
The city's website clearly states that if a vehicle cited for a speed camera violation was stolen at the time, that's a defense that can be used to challenge a speed camera ticket.
