Carjacking caught on camera raises questions about police communication in the DMV
A BMW stolen at gunpoint from its Prince George’s County owner sat next to two marked D.C. police cars hours later.
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“I’m thinking we’re going to have the car back by the end of the night,” the car’s owner who feared retaliation and did not want to be identified said.
The BMW's owner shared a series of pictures snapped and GPS-tagged by the car’s security system, which documented the car's journey after it was stolen. An hour after the carjacking, the BMW's security cameras showed it parked less than two miles from where it was stolen. The next day, remote cameras showed it parked on a D.C. street. That night the security system showed the BMW sitting at a D.C. stop light next to two marked police cars.
“Our officers would not ignore an armed carjacked vehicle in their presence. That would not happen,” Metro Police Captain Jeff Cop said.
Cop leads the D.C. police carjacking task force. When shown the video of the stolen BMW sitting next to marked MPD cars, he said officers were likely not aware that the car was stolen.
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Prince George’s County Police would not discuss any specific investigation or methods. Major Sunny Mrotek said communication between police agencies is generally strong, but acknowledged lag time between when a car is stolen and when it may be communicated with a neighboring department.
“If it is a violent crime and its something that we’re immediately aware of and we have a look out for that vehicle we will certainly broadcast that,” Mrotek said.
Car theft is spiking across the DMV. Police records show more than 100,000 auto crimes in D.C., Montgomery and Prince George's County since 2021.
