NBC 5 Viewer Helps Recover Stolen Vehicle

An alert NBC 5 viewer helped Grand Prairie police recover a stolen Denali Thursday and arrest the three women inside.

It all began Monday when vehicle owner Laura Wolf was dropping her child off at a Dallas daycare center.

She briefly left her purse in the unlocked vehicle and daycare surveillance video captured images of a woman stealing that purse, then jumping into the passenger seat of a car that sped away.

Sometime Wednesday morning, personal information and the keys from Wolf's purse were apparently used to find and steal the vehicle from Wolf's driveway in Grand Prairie.


The video aired on NBC 5 Wednesday night.

"We got a tip from one of your viewers that recognized one of the suspects that was seen in the video," Grand Prairie Police Detective Mark Beseda said.

Beseda said undercover officers found the vehicle, watched the three women get into it, then followed it and called uniformed officers in marked Grand Prairie squad cars to stop the SUV on Carrier Parkway off I-20 at a Kohl's store parking lot.

"Two people got out of the vehicle, they fled on foot, ran a short distance. They were apprehended. The driver was taken into custody here in the Kohl's parking lot," Beseda said.

The detective said one of the three women was the suspect clearly seen in the surveillance video.

Wolf and her husband were called to the Kohl's Thursday afternoon to take their Denali home and they found it was in pretty good shape.

"I will be able to sleep a little bit better than I did last night," she said.

The couple was concerned since the suspects had found their way to the family home to take the SUV.

"This was a great ending," said Beseda. "All three suspects are in jail. The owners got their car back and they've got that satisfaction of knowing these people are going to be in jail for quite a long time."

Beseda said names of the suspects are not being released as Grand Prairie detectives talk with other police agencies about other possible crimes the suspects may have committed.

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