Wilmette Police Chief Brian King has a message for residents: don’t leave your car unlocked and never leave the keys in it. According to the Chicago Tribune, five vehicles were stolen in Wilmette, Northbrook and Winnetka in the early morning hours of July 15.
Chief King told the Tribune that in each instance, the owners had left their cars unlocked with the keys in them.
Three of the stolen cars were found by Wilmette police at gas station located at Lake Avenue and Skokie Boulevard at 2:50 a.m. on July 15. Two cars were stolen from Northbrook, while the third was stolen from the 400 block of Maple Avenue in Wilmette.
According to the Tribune, after the stolen vehicles were discovered the Wilmette police chased the cars on Skokie Boulevard going south. Two of the cars crashed into each other and the occupants escaped on foot. The third was later recovered, damaged, on the Edens Expressway at Dempster Street.
Another car was stolen from the 2500 block of Greenleaf Avenue in Wilmette and later found with its tires blown out in Winnetka.