TODAY'S TMJ4

Wauwatosa Teen Steals Lexus From Family's Driveway

WAUWATOSA - The front passenger side is smashed. The bumper cracked. The damage underneath may have permanently ruined the Lexus, but this SUV is back the owner's driveway.

"You just don't feel safe where you live, entirely,” said the Wauwatosa mom who owns the vehicle. She asked that her identity not be revealed.

She said she started the car in her driveway Wednesday morning to warm it up for her infant and 7-year-old daughter.

"I sent my daughter out just a little bit ahead of myself to get in the car because I had the baby,” the mother told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray.

When the girl went outside to get into her family’s SUV, she discovered it was gone.

Investigators say a 15-year-old boy first stole a PT Cruiser and even used it to take his girlfriend to school. When that car ran out of gas, he saw the Lexus with its motor already running and he took it.

"I was so foolish to think that I could leave my car running and unlocked."

When a Wauwatosa police officer caught up with the stolen SUV, the teen driver rammed into the squad car and kept on driving.

The thief ditched the Lexus in Milwaukee. The tire marks are still visible from the point where the teen got out of the moving vehicle, allowing the runaway SUV to crash on the bank of the Lincoln Parkway creek. He ran away, but footprints in the snow led police to their suspect.