(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Executives at Volkswagen are promising to address what they call a serious breach of their procedures that police say caused a delay in the search for a stolen SUV with a toddler inside.
A carjacker battered a pregnant woman Thursday and stole her SUV from her driveway in unincorporated Libertyville while her two-year-old son was still buckled inside.
Lake County Sheriff's Department spokesman Chris Covelli says detectives responded swiftly but hit a roadblock in tracking the mother’s Volkswagen Atlas when they reached out to the company monitoring its GPS information.
“The receptionist looked up the information on the Volkswagen and said that the customer was no longer in the free-trial version of the program, and in order to receive that GPS data would need to pay $150,” Covelli told CBS 2.
The child was soon found unhurt in Waukegan by a Good Samaritan who called police.
The boy’s mother, who's six months pregnant, is in the hospital.
A Volkswagen spokesperson said the auto maker has a policy in place to handle emergency requests from law enforcement. A third-party vendor handles the Car-Net Support Services, they said.
“Unfortunately, in this instance, there was a serious breach of the process. We are addressing the situation with the parties involved,” a statement said.
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