Don't These Things Only Happen on TV????

Some of you may remember the photo below. I posted it back in March on my way out of town for a girlfriends' weekend.

Well, that very Jeep Grand Cherokee was stolen out of our driveway Sunday night while we were asleep. JC realized it was missing Monday morning about 6:30 when he took the recycling out. We called 911 and reported it stolen. We were not given very much hope that we would ever see this car again. Where do you even start looking for a car? The only identifiable characteristic was the license plate which we were sure would be replaced instantly. The whole thing made us feel extremely ill and creeped out that someone had been in our driveway while we were sleeping. We live at the back of our neighborhood so we haven't had any problems with theft on our street in the past. Later Monday I also realized that our garage door opener was in the Jeep! I was scared to death that someone was going to come back and try to break into the house. We slept with three lights on outside and the lamp on in our foyer Monday night, and JC disengaged the garage door controls so that the openers would not work.
We woke up Tuesday and unfortunately the Jeep overshadowed the boys' first day of school this year, but I still managed to get a couple of photos. We took them to school and went on to work. When I got home around 2:30, I called JC so I could be on the phone with someone as I entered the house...again very creeped out! While we were on the phone, he said, "if you are ok, the Sherriff's Office is on the other line. I need to take that call." So we hung up and about 10 minutes later, he called me back saying that they had found the Jeep!!!!!!!

A NC State Trooper happened to be pulling out of a DMV office in our town and two cars were racing towards him going 69mph in a 35mph zone so he did a u-turn and went after them. He pulled the Jeep over and ran the tags, and of course they were not ours. They were registered to another vehicle type so he ran the VIN# and saw that it was a stolen vehicle! As it turns out, the driver of the other vehicle was a friend of the 16 year old girl who was driving our Jeep, and she was in a stolen vehicle as well. Neither of them had drivers' licenses, and the other car had illegal drugs in it. They towed that car away, but we got ours back! Both girls were arrested, but we have no idea what will happen to them, and I feel pretty certain that they probably didn't steal the cars.
Everything that we had in the car was gone including the DVD system, our garage door opener, clothes, a rolling cooler, the boys' booster seats and some other small items. Thankfully the registration and insurance information was still in the glove compartment.
Yesterday we had an alarm system installed in our house. I did sleep a little better last night, but I will never feel as safe as I once did in our home.

We are so thankful that it was just a car that was stolen...they could have broken into our house or someone could have been hurt or worse!

Y'all don't forget to lock ALL of your doors! It is a crazy world out there!!!