Illinois family couldn't get GPS data for carjacked vehicle with son inside unless they paid a fee: lawsuit

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. - A terrifying carjacking and kidnapping in Libertyville earlier this year was made even worse when the carmaker refused to provide GPS tracking information to police.

Now, the family that survived the harrowing ordeal is filing a lawsuit against Volkswagen, alleging its failure to help in this life-or-death drama has left them traumatized.

Taylor Shepherd, the carjacking victim, had just returned to her home in Libertyville last February when another car suddenly pulled into her driveway, and a masked man jumped behind the wheel of her Volkswagen Atlas. Her two-year-old son, Isaiah, was still strapped into his car seat in the back.

"Immediately my heart just dropped into my stomach, and I ran to the car as fast as I could," remembered Shepherd. When she tried to stop the carjacking, the carjackers ran right over her.

"They ran over the entire left side of my body. There were tire tracks all over the left side of my stomach," said Shepherd.

With a badly broken pelvis and six months pregnant, Shepherd crawled down the driveway and called 911.

"They said, 'Do you have the app on your phone through Volkswagen?' And I said, 'Yes, I have that.'"

That's the Volkswagen Car-Net app, which allows users to track their car and even turn off the engine remotely. But when Lake County Sheriff's deputies called Volkswagen and explained the kidnapping, the representative said Taylor's service had expired and refused to provide the GPS information unless they received $150.

"Worst nightmare you could ever imagine," said Gregory Kovtelidakis, Isaiah's father. "Just knowing that your kid's gone and you can't really do anything about it. And knowing that these people on the other side of the phone that are capable of doing something about it...and they're just telling you no."

Eventually, Shepherd's father gave the Volkswagen representative a credit card and paid the bill to unlock the information. But by then, Isaiah had been found wandering near a parking lot in Waukegan, and the stolen car was found abandoned a few miles away.

Now the family is suing Volkswagen and the Car-Net service, saying it can't happen to another family.

"It's $150," said attorney Gerald Bekkeman, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the family. "It shocks the conscience to hear that somebody could refuse to turn over information on a kidnapped child for a $150 subscription renewal."

Taylor later gave birth to a healthy baby boy—now four months old—but says the ordeal has left a scar on the family, especially Isaiah.

"He has night terrors, nightmares. So we're all in therapy."

FOX 32 has reached out to Volkswagen for a response to the lawsuit.