Houston family's long wait for stolen truck recovery highlights challenges in HPD's recovery rates

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Mississippi local Janice Coleman was in town visiting her daughter, who happens to be an ABC13 employee, before going on a family vacation to Florida.

They went to the Galleria area to return an item and then stopped by the Kroger on West Gray Street for ten minutes before coming back out.

"We thought we couldn't remember where we had parked the truck. We started hitting the fob so we could hear it, and the youngest said, 'No, we parked here. I think someone has taken the truck,'" Coleman said.

This happened in May, and according to police records, it was one of more than 14,000 vehicles stolen that month in Houston.

Coleman said surveillance video showed a car pulled up, and the people inside jumped out.

"He hit the ground and went under our truck and was able to crank it from there, and he stole it," Coleman said.

Then, out of the blue, in November, Coleman got a call from the Houston Police Department. She said the officer told her the car ended up in Chicago, where it was sold for cash. She said a state trooper spotted it in Wisconsin and recovered it.

"I was shocked before I even called the impound lot because she gave me all the information HPD did. I said, 'No, I got to call her back because I got to be certain she's trying to reach us to say she found our truck,'" Coleman said.

This case falls into the tiny number of auto theft cases that are cleared in Houston. Less than 5% of these crimes were solved from January through October of this year, less than the 6% that were solved in 2023 and below the state average of 7.7% in 2023.

HPD said there are several reasons why stolen car cases can be hard to solve. Many end up in chop shops or go out of state, and if a car theft was not violent, HPD may be slower to respond to your call, giving the thieves more getaway time.

"When we get dispatched to calls, there are obviously priorities. People who need our help immediately, they're in danger, they get the top of the calls, and recovering properties isn't going to be real high, but we do want to come out there and help you," Tracy Hicks with the HPD auto crimes task force said.

Coleman said the whole experience has made her daughter think twice about her safety in Houston.

"I said insurance will take care of it if something gets stolen, but I said don't hold it in you and worry about it because there isn't anything we can do about it. Not a thing we can do about it," Coleman said.

HPD said theft prevention is the best place to start, especially as holiday shopping may lead you to shopping malls, which can make you a target. Having highly valuable items in your car can also make you a target. HPD advises keeping an eye out for someone who may be following you when you're leaving a shopping area.

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