It’s reasonable for someone to expect that their vehicle wouldn’t be stripped for parts while it’s parked in the middle of a busy parking lot while they are working during the day. But that’s not what happened to a woman in Ohio who was working a day shift at Kroger when a coworker rushed to show her a picture of her Jeep. She found two of its tires and plenty of other parts missing.
Woman thought the photo of her stripped Jeep was AI at first
On October 19, a 23-year-old woman, who did not what to be identified, was shocked to find that her gray Jeep Cherokee was stripped while she in the middle of her workday, according to a report from WTVG 13 Action News.
While on a break, the woman said that a coworker showed her a photo of her Jeep being propped up on bricks in the parking lot. At first, she couldn’t believe what had happened.
“He showed me a photo on his phone and asked if that was my car, and when I seen the photo, I kind of thought it was an AI photo,” she said. “I didn’t really think it was real. I thought he was joking.”
Inspecting the damage, the woman found that both tires from the Jeep on the driver’s side were missing, along with the rims, lug nuts, and hubs. Now she owes a $500 deductible and it’s unclear when her Jeep will be fixed.
What was even more difficult to believe was how fast the thieves had stolen the parts. “I did see somebody say that they parked by my car and my car was fine around 4:10 p.m.,” the woman recalled, “and then I was notified around 4:13 p.m. So, whoever did this, they did it pretty fast.”
That said, the woman was surprised that her Jeep was targeted in the first place, since the tires were the regular factory ones that came with the vehicle.
No suspect has been identified and, at the time of writing, it has not been confirmed whether the surveillance cameras at Kroger captured the theft. That said, the business has been helpful in reviewing video that could help identify the thieves.
