Denver mom finds her own stolen car after dispatch says there isn’t ‘anyone on duty to help’
A Denver mom took matters into her own hands and recovered her stolen vehicle on Monday after police said there wasn’t anyone on duty to investigate.
Holly Kaufman said she was able to track down her stolen red Mazda SUV through the car company’s mobile app, which is equipped with a vehicle tracker. It also allows users to shut off the vehicle’s engine and signal the vehicle’s emergency alarms, which Kaufman did.
The mother claimed that when she called 911 to report that her vehicle had been stolen, the dispatcher informed her that the department would be unable to assign an officer to investigate since no one was available at the moment to assist, according to Fox KDVR.
The dispatcher reportedly warned against recovering the vehicle on her own, but Kaufman said she didn’t want to risk it as her car had been stolen before and she knew what it would entail.
“She (the dispatcher) is like, ‘Ma’am, you are going to put yourself in danger,'” Kaufman said. “She said they don’t have anyone on duty to help me right now, so I said, ‘OK, this is the address I’m going to be at, I’m going to be there in five minutes and you can either meet me or I’ll be getting my car.'”
Kaufman tracked down her stolen vehicle at a Safeway parking lot within 15 minutes after it had been taken.
When she recovered the stolen vehicle, she found beer, a pipe, and Target receipts inside of it.
“In the past, I’ve had a vehicle stolen and they rip out your whole car, tear everything up, try to live in it and put drugs in it,” Kaufman told Fox KDVR.
“I’m a working mom and it’s hard nowadays to make car payments,” she explained. “This is a car that I carry my 4-year-old son in, so I’m like, ‘This not happening in my car.'”
Kaufman added, “I just feel super violated, and at that point in time, there is nothing that was going to change my mind, I was getting my car, I knew they didn’t have time, so I just got it myself. I’m not advising people to do what I did, but at some point, something needs to change.”
Additionally, the Denver Police Department warned against taking matters into your own hands because it may be risky to confront the thieves.
Rather, the department advised citizens to register their vehicle with the DenverTrack program if a GPS tracker was enabled, which would aid law enforcement in finding it more quickly in the case of a theft.