Mom sues Volkswagen for delay in tracking stolen vehicle
By: Nancy Harty (audacy)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Libertyville mother who was run over while trying to stop carjackers from stealing her Volkswagen -- with her toddler inside -- is now suing the automaker.
Lake County sheriff's detectives called Volkswagen's Car-Net immediately after learning Taylor Shepard's 2-year-old son was inside the pregnant woman's SUV that was stolen off her driveway in February.
The service would not track the 2021 Atlas until it received payment - a decision Volkswagen said was a breach of emergency policy by a third-party vendor.
By the time the fee was paid, the boy was found safe in a Waukegan parking lot.
Shepard and her husband are now suing Volkswagen, claiming the delay in finding their son caused them extreme emotional distress.
Tags
Who is online
73 visitors
The car was stolen with the toddler in it. When the police tried to get tracking information about where the car had gone the carmaker refused to co-operate because the parents were behind on their payments.
Surprising since the carmaker didn’t sell them the car, a dealer did.
Libertyville parents sue Volkswagen over tracking of carjacked vehicle with child inside (msn.com)
A lawsuit has been filed against Volkswagen by the parents of a toddler who was kidnapped in the back of a carjacked vehicle.
Last February, Taylor Shepherd was outside her home in Libertyville, about to get her son from the car, when police said two men pulled up, knocked her to the ground, and stole her car with her two-year-old son inside. She was run over as the thieves fled, and was 24 weeks pregnant at the time.
"I thought these people were kidnappers and I would never see my son again. I did not think they were there just to steal my car," she said.
She had tire tracks over her stomach and suffered numerous broken bones, including a fractured pelvis. But that was no her concern. She called 911 and remembered she had a tracking device in her Volkswagen to help police find her car and her son.
But Volkswagen allegedly refused to give law enforcement the GPS tracking location data from the car because the free trial period had expired.
"I didn't even think that would be an issue, that VW would refuse to tell us where our son was, especially when it's kidnappers and every second matters," Shepherd said.
The family said because Volkswagen and Verizon, the GPS contractor, refused to cooperate with police, it delayed the urgent search for the missing child.
"Knowing your kid's gone and you can't do anything about it and these people on the other side of the phone that are capable of doing something and they're just telling you no," said father Greg Kovtelidakis.
Police were able to find her son Isaiah in Waukegan after an alert citizen saw the toddler walking near a busy road where the carjackers apparently pushed him out of the stolen vehicle.
Isaiah was physically unharmed, but Shepherd remains in physical therapy for her injuries.
In the aftermath of the incident, Volkswagen started giving five year subscriptions for the tracking service on select models.
Neither Volkswagen nor Verizon responded to ABC7's requests for comments on the lawsuit, but in March a Volkswagen executive called what happened a "process failure."
"I think this case and the facts are just an egregious example of corporate greed putting profits over people," said attorney Gerald Bekkerman.
Is carjacking a growing problem in Chicago like it is in the nation’s capital?
Did the family decide that the capability wasn’t worth the cost?
The article is not about the prevalence of carjacking, it is about what happened when the police asked Volkswagen for the cars location.
I once owned a VW Golf convertible that I had bought for my kids to use, and it was stolen. Maybe the lawsuit should add the claim that VWs are not made sufficiently theft-proof.
VW probably failed to make the rag top perforation proof, did they defer using Kevlar?
Reminds me of the stories about peoples’ houses burning to the ground while firemen and equipment sit idly by because the homeowner didn’t pay for support from the local privatized fire station. The firemen arrive in a hurry to observe just in case the house fire spreads to a paying customer. We continue on our path of being a species that values money over empathy.