Woman takes car back from car thief

WINTHROP, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) – A Winthrop woman, whose car was stolen, took matters into her own hands to get it back.

Lisa told FOX 25 she noticed her car was missing from her driveway early Tuesday morning. She reported the incident to police, but they told her there wasn't much they could do until it turned up.

"I was really frustrated it was like, ‘OK, either it will turn up or it won't," said Lisa.

Thinking all hope was lost, Lisa called E-ZPass to have her transponder shut off. During the call, a representative from E-ZPass told her it had been used Thursday morning on the Tobin Bridge.

A short time later, a woman in Chelsea called Lisa and said she had found some of her personal items on the street, including her purse. When Lisa retrieved the items, among them was a Garmin GPS unit that wasn't hers. She said she found out through Garmin how to download data showing where the car had been.

"The GPS said it had been on these two particular streets in Chelsea," said Lisa.

At that point, Lisa's sister, Kathleen, and a friend decided to go to the streets in Chelsea with a key to the vehicle and hit the panic button.

"A half hour later she called me like a maniac and said, ‘I'm in your car, what do you want me to do?' I said ‘Bring it to the Winthrop police,'" Lisa said.

She said Winthrop police told her it was a mistake to go retrieve the car, saying she should have called Chelsea police.

"Honestly, neither of us had even thought about it. I was just like, ‘Oh my God! You got my car back, that's awesome!'"

Lisa said there was some damage to the car, but she was happy to have it back.

"My sister's awesome!" Lisa said.

Cox Media Group