Volkswagen said it would make its emergency roadside assistance program free to some vehicle owners for the next five years after a program representative recently declined to give police GPS information for a car that was stolen near Libertyville with a toddler inside.
Meanwhile, Lake County Sheriff’s Officers said they have recovered the vehicle used in the Feb. 23 incident during which carjackers ran over the toddler’s mother during the theft of her VW Atlas.
Despite being badly injured, the woman was able to call 911, and police called Car-Net, the VW roadside assistance program seeking GPS information. But a Car-Net representative refused to give it, saying the customer’s account had lapsed.
Police had a relative of the carjack victim make a $150 payment to reactivate the service, but the delay impeded the police investigation, the sheriff’s office said. The child was turned out of the vehicle in a Waukegan parking lot about 15 minutes after he was taken. He was not injured.
The mother, 34, suffered broken extremities and remains hospitalized, though her condition continues to improve, Deputy Chief Chris Covelli said Wednesday. The carjackers drove up to the residence in the 16000 block of Route 137 in a BMW that had been reported stolen from a Waukegan car dealership.
Police recovered that car this week in a parking lot in Waukegan near the intersection of Green Bay Road and Washington Street. The stolen Atlas was recovered hours after the carjacking in Waukegan.
Volkswagen said the refusal to provide police information represented a “serious breach” of the way Car-Net is supposed to operate.
This week the company said in response to the incident, it would offer Car-Net emergency services for most 2020-2023 Car-Net equipped models free for a five-year period.
“Volkswagen must and will do better for everyone that trusts our brand and for the law enforcement officials tasked with protecting us,” Rachael Zaluzec, a Volkswagen senior vice president, said in a statement issued Tuesday. “In addition to a full investigation of what went wrong and actions taken to address the failure, we want to make it right for the future.”
“The family was thankfully reunited, but the crime and the process failure are heartbreaking for me,” Zaluzec said “As a mom and an aunt, I can imagine how painful this incident must have been. Words can’t adequately express how truly sorry I am for what the family endured.”
In the carjack incident, the mother had left her two-year-old in the car as she brought her other child into her home. As she came back outside, the carjackers pulled up in the stolen BMW. A man exited and struck the woman before driving off with her vehicle and child.
