I was run over by car thieves who hijacked my SUV with my child – then Volkswagen charged me $150 to track the vehicle

VOLKSWAGEN has charged a mother $150 to find her stolen SUV with her kidnapped two-year-old son in the back seat.

The German automaker later called the fee a serious breach of company policy.

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Volkswagen representative Mark Gillies said: “Volkswagen has a process with a third-party provider of Car-Net Support Services regarding emergency requests from law enforcement.” The Washington Post reports.

Gillies added, “Unfortunately, there was a serious violation of process in this case.”

The carjacking happened around 3:35 p.m. Thursday at Block 16000 of West Buckley Road in Libertyville, Illinois.

The driver, 33-year-old Taylor Shepherd, who is six months pregnant, was said to have returned to her home when the crime took place Lake and McHenry County Scanners.

After pulling into her driveway, Shepherd brought one of her children in before going back to get the other child.

As Shepherd approached her Volkswagen, a white BMW pulled into her driveway behind the SUV.

A man got out on the passenger side of the BMW, pushed Shepherd to the ground and drove away with her child.

Shepherd sustained multiple lower body fractures from the attack but is said to be in stable condition.

ABC reported: “After you [Shepherd] was run over [by the hijacker]she could still call 911.”

Knowing that time was of the essence, police contacted Volkswagen to track the vehicle’s GPS signal via the company’s Car-Net service.

But the Volkswagen account manager told the police that the trial version of the Car-Net software had expired.

In order to get the location, Volkswagen told officers Shepherd would have to pay $150 to access the GPS location.

A member of Shepherd’s extended family processed the $150 bill with a credit card, which took 30 minutes to process.

By that time, police had already located the stolen Volkswagen in a parking lot near Casimir Pulaski and Route 43 in Waukegan, Lake and McHenry County Scanner notes.

An employee at a business in the area’s 2200 block called police to report that two vehicles had pulled into a parking lot shortly after the Atlas was stolen.

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Once the cars were parked in the parking lot, the Atlas hijacker left the SUV with the child still inside.

NBC reports that the recovered Volkswagen Atlas is being processed as evidence while police attempt to apprehend the BMW culprit.

The suspect is an unidentified tall and thin man wearing a light gray zip-up hoodie and a light green Covid-style mask.