Underage Kids Seen Driving Stolen Off-Road Vehicles Along Dan Ryan Expressway
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A viral video of underage kids driving off-road vehicles along the Dan Ryan Expressway over the weekend shows the kids driving vehicles stolen from Sunbelt Rentals, detectives said.
Sunbelt Rentals owns the two utility vehicles seen in the video. They were reported stolen overnight on Saturday around 12:30 a.m.
Both Illinois State Police and Chicago Police are investigating the crime.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Omar Orozco.
Three children can be seen driving along the expressway around midnight Saturday.
"And they had no lights on, so people were almost crashing into them. It was pretty bad stuff," said Orozco.
Orozco captured the cell phone video of the kids driving with no lights and no license plates. It has now been viewed more than four million times in less than four days.
"I was nervous. I didn't know what to do, so I took out my phone, and I started recording," he said. "I should've called the police, but I didn't. I saw other people on the phone. They were calling the police."
Chicago police said two Polaris Ranger utility vehicles just like the ones seen in the video were stolen during an event at Maggie Daley Park in the Loop between Friday morning at 8 and Saturday morning at 12:30.
A Sunbelt Rentals representative confirmed the company is working with police.
"I saw these two go karts, which were Polaris, really expensive go karts, off-roading," said Orozco.
Those utility vehicles are priced anywhere between $10,000 and $16,000.
Sunbelt rented the vehicles out to another unnamed company and they were stolen while in that company's possession, police confirmed.
There is no word yet on the circumstances surrounding the theft.
"There was one with two kids and one with one kid, and I was shocked," said Orozco. "I saw them, and I was like, 'Is this real?' Is this real life?'"
One of the UTVs was found in a parking lot near the 130th Street exit ramp of the Bishop Ford Expressway in Altgeld Gardens on the city's South Side.
The other has not yet been found.
The crime qualifies as motor vehicle theft, and those UTVs are not allowed on the highway according to Illinois law.
No one is in custody.
