A woman whose car was stolen then later involved in a serious crash involving another car that hit a home said the damage could have been prevented if police had made more of an effort to track down her car.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she tracked her car for hours on Tuesday using Lojack, a vehicle recovery system.
"I feel bad," the woman said. "Part of me feels, I don't know, like a little guilt. I can't imagine what those people are going through whose house was damaged."
The woman said her car was stolen Tuesday morning after she parked it near her workplace in Homewood. She said she received a call from Dolton police later that day telling her that her stolen car had been used in an unspecified crime.
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She said she then used the Lojack app on her phone to track the car, which she said was speeding toward Chicago. She said she called police and spoke to Homewood officers.
"I said 'Look, you can see on my phone where the car is,'" the woman recalled. "They [said] 'Oh no, that's a delayed reaction. So even though you're seeing it on your phone, that's not where it is now.'"
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The woman said she felt that officers should have made more of an effort to track down the car. NBC 5 reached out to the Homewood Police Department for comment but did not receive a response.
Around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the woman's Kia sedan was involved in a fiery crash in the West Pullman neighborhood. Surveillance video obtained by NBC 5 shows her car slam into a van, then the van crash into a home.
"I broke down and cried," the woman said. "I was praying to God that no one was injured."
Chicago police said no one was inside the home at the time. In total, three people were hurt inside the cars, but police said the driver of the woman's Kia ran from the scene.
"I really believe if [police] would have used the tracker, that the house [wouldn't] be damaged and those people wouldn't be hurt," the woman said. "This is not fair. It's not going to be just a simple thing for me to replace my vehicle."
