Someone noticed a gray 2005 Volkswagen parked on Butrick Street in Waukegan late Monday, recognized it as the stolen vehicle used in a weekend police officer-dragging incident and called police.
“The vehicle is being processed,” said Cmdr. Joe Florip of the Waukegan Police Department. “Detectives are very confident in their investigation.”
The report of the abandoned vehicle came in at 10:50 p.m., he said.
“The Waukegan Police Department would like to thank the Chicagoland media for all the coverage on this incident. The person that called the Waukegan police dispatch stated that they knew the stolen VW was wanted because they saw it on the news,” Florip said in a statement.
There are two videos that show Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. confrontation outside the BP service station at 902 Grand Ave., during which police officers tried to get the driver of the stolen car out of the vehicle, with one at one point smashing the driver’s side window. The second video shows an open door and an officer running toward it, trying to get in, then the car lurches and starts to drive away with the officer hanging onto the door.