'These people stole my car, my kids are inside.' Parents recount harrowing vehicle theft.
A vehicle ― with children inside ― was stolen from the Oak Creek Kwik Trip Sunday morning. For the parents, the ordeal which lasted only minutes, likely felt like a lifetime.
Oak Creek police confirmed the incident took place at 11:24 a.m. Feb. 4 at the Kwik Trip at 6300 S. 27th St. Two children were inside when the vehicle was stolen ― an 8-year-old and a 2-year-old.
The children's mother, Brittany Jorgenson of Greendale, said that's when she received a call from her husband Adam Jorgenson's cell phone and another call from strange number.
“Both of them were coming in at the exact same moment,” she said.
Her husband’s cell “just clicked.” She assumed it was connecting to Bluetooth in their car, so she hung up and switched to the other number on hold. It was her husband’s voice sounding panicked. He was on a borrowed phone from a Kwik Trip employee.
Finding out about the car theft with the kids
“He said somebody took the car and the kids were inside,” Jorgenson said.
Adam Jorgenson had just gotten a car wash at Kwik Trip and got out to dry the vehicle, leaving it running.
“I stop there for gas, I used to stop there for snacks all the time,” he said. “That process I did of pulling out of the car wash and pulling around, parking and drying it off I’ve probably done that 50 times at that same car wash.”
While he was on the passenger side of his car, towel in hand drying it off, he heard someone yell from inside a nearby Buick SUV asking about directions. As soon as he looked over at them, he saw his own car take off.
He immediately screamed at the thief: “There’s kids in the vehicle.”
The gas station was busy, so he tried to get anyone’s attention.
“I started yelling, pretty much screaming ‘these people stole my car, my kids are inside,'" Adam Jorgenson said.
Brittany Jorgenson used the “Find my iPhone” feature to locate the vehicle, which had stopped behind Batteries Plus, 5474 S. 27th St., just a short distance from Kwik Trip. After she relayed the location to her husband, who was also talking with police on a second borrowed line, she saw she had a new voicemail ― someone had called from her husband's phone again while she was on the other line.
It was their 8-year-old daughter, Charley.
“She was screaming for help,” Jorgenson said.
An 8-year-old girl recounts her ordeal
Charley Jorgenson said the person who stole the car told her to leave, but she didn’t want to abandon her 2-year-old sister.
“He told me to get out of the car,” she said. “So, then I was like, ‘what about Autumn?’”
Charley said another car pulled up next to them and the driver who stole her family's car yelled over to the driver of the other vehicle, saying, “there are kids in the car.”
“His cousin’s car went right up to our car, and he went into his cousin’s car, and they just drove away,” Charley Jorgenson said.
She’d seen the driver with her dad’s phone, but they left it behind, so she used it to call her mom.
Reunited only a few minutes later
Oak Creek police had a squad close by whose officer went to the scene and told Adam Jorgenson they had the kids. They brought him over and he ran over, “did some nice hugging” and the girls got teddy bears from officers, he said.
Adam Jorgenson said there are true benefits to “Find my iPhone" and Apple AirTag, a small coin-sized tracking device that can be attached to or placed in items.
“If it wasn’t for that Find my iPhone - we essentially found the vehicle faster than the police did by using that,” he said. “In our case it reunited us quicker with our children.”
Turns out it was about five minutes.
Brittany Jorgenson said the initial call from her husband came in at 11:24 a.m. and she was on the phone with her daughter, Charley, at 11:29 a.m. who was safe as the driver had already abandoned the car.
She said police told her someone had called in an abandoned vehicle with kids in it.
Police believe it was the kidnappers who made the call, she said.
“I don’t know if they had a conscience or if they were thinking about themselves,” Brittany Jorgenson said.
The case is under investigation, police said, and detectives have a person of interest in custody.
Any witnesses of the incident, or anyone with related information, is asked to contact Oak Creek Police Detective Ben Lockwood at 414-766-7627.
Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on X @Redheadliner.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Car stolen from Oak Creek Kwik Trip. Two young kids were in the car.
