A Wisconsin man stopped to dry off his car with his two daughters in the backseat. Ninety seconds later, someone else was driving them out of the parking lot.
Adam Jorgenson pulled into a Kwik Trip in Oak Creek with his two daughters, 8-year-old Charley and 2-year-old Autumn for a quick wash. He left the SUV running and stepped out to dry it off. That’s when a man approached him and asked for directions.
The questions kept Adam turned away from the SUV. While he answered them, a second man got into the driver’s seat.
“That’s when I heard the tires on our vehicle screech, and I turned around, and the car was racing out of the parking lot,” Adam told ABC WISN.
Both girls were still in the backseat. Adam called his wife, Brittany, then 911.
“Immediately, I’m freaking out, just thinking worst-case scenario. I’m never going to see my kids again,” Brittany recalled.
The carjacker finally looked back, noticed the girls, and ordered Charley to get out of the car.
“He noticed that I was in the car and said, ‘Get out.’ But then I said, what about my sister? What am I going to do about her?” Charley explained.
As the situation escalated, Charley spotted her dad’s cell phone sitting in the front console. She quietly hatched a plan, deciding that the second the thief left the car, she’d grab the phone and call her mom.
Adam still had the key fob in his pocket. The SUV was push-to-start, so once the engine cut out, it wasn’t starting again. About a mile down the road, the driver got out and ran. Charley reached for the phone.
“Mom, I need you. We lost dad,” she said.
Brittany kept her on the phone while she and Adam tracked its location through Find My. Police zeroed in on the abandoned SUV, and Adam rushed to the scene.
“I got out of the police car, and I ran as fast as I could up to my car where my girls were in the backseat,” Adam said. Neither girl was hurt.
Police are still investigating.
“Things can happen in a matter of seconds, and you’re never guaranteed a happy ending,” Brittany said. “But thankfully for us, it’s a happy ending.”
