Police in Lake Country, Illinois wasn’t able to track a stolen Volkswagen with a two-year-old child inside because the automaker wouldn’t provide access to its Car-Net vehicle tracking service. The subscription for the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas had expired.
However, the trial period for Car-Net had expired, and a representative demanded $150 to restart the service and locate the SUV. The detective begged, explaining the “extremely exigent circumstance,” but the representative refused, citing company policy, according to sheriff’s office Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli.
“While searching for the stolen vehicle and endangered child, sheriff’s detectives immediately called Volkswagen Car-Net, in an attempt to track the vehicle,” the Lake County sheriff’s office said in a statement posted on Facebook about the incident on February 23. “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 vehicle had already been located by other means by the time officers claim they paid the $150 and received the location of the vehicle. “After about 30 minutes, ‘we had already located the 2-year-old child and the vehicle before they even provided us with the information, so it was at that point worthless,” the Sun-Times wrote.
Volkswagen gave the following statement to Jalopnik in regard to the situation: “Volkswagen takes the safety and security of its customers very seriously. Our thoughts are with the victims and their family. 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 sources for this piece include an article in ArsTechnica.
