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Volkswagen Car-Net vehicle tracking service costs $17.99 per month, but it could have cost the life of a 2-year-old carjacking victim because of a “serious breach” in protocol this week.
A 6-month pregnant woman was carjacked and run over in the process when thugs stole her BMW with her 2-year-old son in the car seat. But when police contacted the Volkswagen service to locate the endangered child, they were told that the subscription service would have to be paid first before the tracking could be activated.
According to NBC Chicago:
The Lake County Sheriff’s office said it “immediately called Volkswagen Car-Net, in an attempt to the track the vehicle.”
“Unfortunately, there was a delay, as Volkswagen Car-Net would not track the vehicle with the abducted child until they received payment to reactivate the tracking device in the stolen Volkswagen,” the sheriff’s office said.
The 2-year-old was eventually dropped by the carjackers outside a business in Waukegan, authorities said.
In a statement to NBC Chicago, a spokesperson for the company said “Volkswagen takes the safety and security of its customers very seriously.”
“Our thoughts are with the victims and their family,” the statement read. “Volkswagen has a procedure in place with a third-party provider for Car-Net Support Services involving emergency requests from law enforcement. They have executed this process successfully in previous incidents. Unfortunately, in this instance, there was a serious breach of the process. We are addressing the situation with the parties involved.”
The 34-year-old woman and owner of the vehicle, who is six months pregnant, was hospitalized after suffering severe wounds during the incident.
Police are still searching for the suspects, but said they did recover the stolen Volkswagen in a parking lot near the intersection of Route 43 and Casmir Pulaski Street. They’re still searching for another vehicle involved in the incident, a BMW stolen in the past week from a car dealership in Waukegan.
Thank God the child was returned to his family. Since when is the life of a child worth $17.99 to a major corporation?
