CLEVELAND, Ohio – An OnStar security system helped Cleveland police officers track and stop a car stolen late Tuesday from a gas station in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
OnStar remotely slowed the stolen car as officers followed it early Wednesday on Interstate 90 near the West 41st Street exit. Officers arrested three 15-year-old boys, a 14-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy and a sixth boy whose age is not included in the police report for the incident.
All six boys were taken to the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center, which declined to take them into custody. They were released and taken home. A Cleveland police spokeswoman did not immediately say whether they are facing juvenile charges in the case.
A 25-year-old man left his 2015 Buick Lacrosse running just after 11:30 p.m. while he and his girlfriend went into a gas station on Memphis Avenue near Ridge Road. An employee told the man someone got into his car and drove away, police reports say.
Security camera video showed a white car drive up to the gas station. The driver got out, jumped into the Buick and drove away. An accomplice moved over to driver’s seat in the white car and sped away, police reports say.
The Buick has an OnStar security system, and the company tracked the car. An officer found it just before 2 a.m. Wednesday at a gas station on Clark Avenue at Scranton Road.
Officers followed the stolen car onto Interstate 90, where OnStar slowed it until it stopped near the West 41st Street exit. Two officers drew their guns and ordered the Buick’s occupants out of the car. The six boys got out and surrendered without incident, police reports say.
Investigators also found two bank cards and the keys to a Volkswagen in the stolen Buick, police reports say.
The man and his girlfriend came to retrieve his stolen Buick. The car had fresh damage and was missing its front bumper, they said.
Investigators believe the six boys may be connected to a crash involving another stolen car on Gifford Drive near West 57th Street in Cleveland, police reports say. The Buick’s bumper was found at that crash scene. Details from that crash were not immediately available Wednesday afternoon.
Area police departments routinely work with OnStar to track stolen cars and arrest suspects in motor vehicle thefts and carjackings. Last year, Cleveland officers used the technology to track and arrest three suspects in a carjacking at an East Side gas station. In 2017, OnStar used its technology to remotely slowed a truck stolen from Lyndhurst and a car stolen from South Euclid.
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