Carjacking victim arrested after police say she beat thief with an ice scraper (after the fact)
Carjacking victim arrested after police say she beat thief with an ice scraper (after the fact)
The only winner here is the ice scraper.
Edited headline to make it clear that the victim attacked the thief after finding the thief in traffic later on.
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Article text:
Three people were arrested in a Madison car theft Sunday, including the vehicle’s owner, after police say she tracked down the thief and battered him with an ice scraper.
Madison police were dispatched to a reported vehicle theft on the city’s East Side around 6:30 p.m., according to a statement from police spokesperson officer Stephanie Fryer.
Shortly after making the report, the woman who owned the vehicle set out with a man to look for it, Fryer said.
When they found the vehicle in traffic near East Washington Avenue at Stoughton Road, they pulled the man who’d stolen it out of the driver’s side window and beat him to the point that he required stitches, Fryer said.
The alleged thief, a 34-year-old McFarland man, “actively resisted officers,” for which he was arrested on tentative charges of resisting arrest and operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent. He was jailed after being medically cleared at a local hospital.
The car’s owner, a 32-year-old Madison woman, and a 23-year-old Fitchburg man were taken into custody on tentative charges of substantial battery. The woman also had a probation hold.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 11, 2024, Madison saw 342 car thefts.
Ah, okay. She attacked him after the incident. That changes things.
If it was during the attempting carjacking, she'd probably have been fine, legally speaking, since she was in danger at the time. After, once she was out of danger, yeah, that's a whole different story. Not that the guy probably didn't deserve it, but there's no legal carve out for that.
Not that I'm a fan of vigilante justice (depending on the circumstances), but this was likely the only way for this woman to get her car back. I guarantee the police weren't going to do shit about it.
That's what I'm thinking. I've heard of cases where the owner has a gps tracker on a stolen item and can tell the cops which corner of a house or garage the item is in. Cops just shrug.
My company had someone jack a huge box truck, strip it, and leave the shell in a parking lot. The last driver had earbuds in the truck that pinged to a car shop down the road. We also have dual gps trackers in the truck that showed its trip. Cops did nothing.
At what point do we consider a carjacking over? The violence of the action was ongoing. If this was their house, the person is still invading.
I'm aware of the letter of the law, I'm arguing spirit. I'm also ok with the idea that a civil society with a working justice system should discourage people from such actions. We're not really living in that sort of system right now, especially if we're talking about poor areas and marginalized groups. Might be a good idea for us to debate this shit as the populations underserved by our justice system keeps growing, and evidence that the US justice system exists only to protect the rich keeps piling up.
Yeah, that's the thing. Based on my ideals, this is the wrong course of action. But for someone in the real world, especially someone already on parole, I really can't blame them for assuming the police won't give a fuck. Especially in America; losing your car can ruin your life.