Cru 22-Part one-WE BEEN ROBBED!!

Last week Brenda and I returned from our biannual meeting of CRU, CRU-22. It was held, for the first time in our knowledge in a location OTHER than CSU, Ft. Collins, CO. It was in Milwaukee which turned out to be a pretty good location.

Bre and I got to experience something brand new--a stolen rental car. The morning after our second night in the city, I looked over at the hotel parking lot to spot our rental Kia Soul. But, it wasn't where we had parked it the night before. NOTHING-- the car had disappeared.

We quickly went to the hotel lobby who called the Milwaukee Police for us. I called the rental car company and reported the theft to them. The Police officer who showed up was a nice man, Adam R. He took out report and told us this type theft, of this type auto, was extremely common these days. A kid would break the window out, crawl threw to avoid setting off any alarm. They would then strip the column where the key, yes key, would start the car. The plastic apprently comes off easily. They could then use a USB connector to turn the ignition and start the Kia.

The hotel video of our parking lot showed the thief arrived at 1116 Saturday night, 16 July and by 1122 they were departing the parking lot. The policeman criticized their slow actions. He said 3 minutes was more reasonable. He said that the impound lot looked like a Kia/Hyundai sales lot. He said 26 were stolen each day. I asked how the theft was monetized and he said they were simply joy-riding and posting their "accomplishment" on social media.

Our thieves were captured and the car recovered after running into a stop sign at 0233 Sunday morning. They were 17, 15 and 12 years of age. They fled the wrecked auto, but were later taken into custody.

Welcome to Milwaukee.  At least we got a nice police car ride out of it. The police officer was very nice and gave us a ride to our morning meetings.