KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One week after getting carjacked, a Kansas City, Kan., couple helped crack their own case. The couple thought their stolen red Jeep was long gone – that is until they saw it pull up beside them on the highway Tuesday night.
“A city this large, this many highways, the chances are so slim,” said Andrew Schupick, who owns the Jeep. “I can’t even fathom a guess of what they would be, such tiny chances but we got lucky!”
Schupick and his wife were at the right place, at the right time.
“One minute later, one minute earlier, we’d never seen it,” he said.
Spotting their stolen Jeep on the highway was a strange coincidence just one week after Schupick was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
“Having a gun placed on your forehead is, it’s a surreal experience because you realize that if he decided to pull the trigger, and he could’ve for absolutely no reason, I wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
Schupick, who is legally blind, had gone out to their car to get something he’d forgotten after his wife picked him up from work. That’s when the thief held him at gunpoint, snatched his keys and took off with their Jeep.
“We just figured the Jeep was gone at that point and the police told us about as much,” he said. “It was about a 50 percent recovery rate, [police] said.”
Fast forward and there they were a week later on I-70 across the Kansas state line when a car merged beside them. It was a red Jeep with their license plate and parking sticker in the back window.
They trailed behind it and called police who caught up with them.
“At that point he realized they were following him and he tried to speed off,” Schupick said of the suspect.
A police chase ensued, ending in a crash and arrest.
“That’s a pretty traumatic experience,” Schupick said of the carjacking.
“And just the way everything happened now, it’s one of the most unreal stories that I can think of. Everyone that I’ve told about it, my close friends are just like, they just have no words for it. It’s unbelievable,” he said.
Schupick’s Jeep has minor damage after police said the thief let it roll into a patrol car. No charges have been filed yet.
