ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – Visiting Florida from near Akron, Ohio, Aaron Spicer is trying to recover from the Monday theft of his family car, and more.
“All of the Christmas gifts. My son is 11-years-old so, we had Christmas down here. We brought everything with us” said Spicer.
Spicer thinks the thieves followed them from a nearby McDonald’s.
A neighbor’s security camera caught them in the act.
They drive by, steal a purse, and discover they had a key fob.
“They came back, jumped in that car, and took off with it” said Rick Shaw from the St. Petersburg Police Department.
In less than 2 minutes, the thieves are gone. “They left both windows down and a purse sitting on the front passenger seat. Which we tell everybody not to do” said Shaw.
Aaron’s wife and daughter jumped in a relative’s van. “Vigilantes. Trying to…she wanted her vehicle and her stuff back. Everything was there. Mom, natural, mom’s gonna be protective” said Spicer.
They found their car and the young thieves rummaging through it.
“They saw that white van so, when it pulled up, the look oh their face was ‘oh no.’ And they jumped back in the car as the car was pulling away and a high speed chase took place” said Spicer.
They got away. But soon, another tip sent them out again.
“They saw the car flying about 90 to a hundred miles an hour, down streets, back and forth” he said.
The thieves “break checked” his wife, sending the van into their own car.
The front-end is damaged.
A day later, several miles away, cops found the stolen Ford smashed into a tree. The vehicle was totaled.
Out of work, uninsured, and with no money, Aaron started a Go Fund Me account and collected enough money to return to Ohio.
He thinks he knows who stole his car, but police are still running down leads, trying to find the crooks.
