Diane Marcuerquiaga: Police caught Christmas Eve car thief, but not in time
This is just a shout out of appreciation to our Modesto police.
My car was stolen on Christmas Eve morning; heard it start up and called the police right away. This was the third time it had been stolen, so I wasn’t holding out much hope. Two police units were at my house within 6 minutes. One officer quickly asked for description of the vehicle and immediately started a search while a second officer stayed to take the report .
Within five minutes, officer 1 radios officer 2 and he takes off in pursuit. They found my car several blocks from my house with one of the thieves still in it. In the short 15 minutes it took for officers to apprehend him, my trunk had been cleaned out of Christmas presents and quite a bit of damage had been done. Security cameras attached to my house show that the thief was dropped off; presumably the person would be met later to transfer content. Never got my stuff back, but thanks to the MPD’s quick action my vehicle is safe. Then they came back with a gift card and stuffed animal! Good guys.
Diane Marcuerquiaga, Modesto
This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Diane Marcuerquiaga: Police caught Christmas Eve car thief, but not in time."