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Carjackings on the rise, here`s how you can stay safe
Carjackings on the rise, here`s how you can stay safe
OAK CREEK -- They're dangerous and they're organized. Police suspect several groups of people are responsible for the recent spike in carjackings in the Milwaukee County area. But they say they're on to them. Now they're just asking you to be on high alert too -- especially after some particularly violent incidents.
FOX6 News spoke with the Oak Creek Police chief on what they're doing to put a stop to it, and what you can do to stay safe.
"I need a squad car, I have a woman in her vehicle just got robbed," said a 911 caller.
A man stopped to help a woman as two young men were trying to take her car from her at a red light on 76th and Layton.
"I heard her hit the horn," said the 911 caller.
That man may be, police say, the reason the dangerous criminals stopped their attempt.
"All of a sudden he came over and put his hands on the window saying 'you better give me your (expletive) car or I'm going to shoot you,'" said the victim of a carjacking.
The traumatic incident is shaking up many people in the area.
"It always occurs to me someone could jump in because you're always hearing about it more and more," said Cheryl Rodriguez, lives in Milwaukee.
Cheryl Rodriguez isn't just thinking about that incident.
"When I'm thinking of the woman in Oak Creek that got punched, I'm thinking that could have been me," said Rodriguez.
The carjacking Rodriguez's referring to, happened just a week earlier and it wasn't the city's first.
"One individual was followed home and then accosted in his driveway and then they took the vehicle," said Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards.
Incidents like that are prompting Chief Edwards to put out a warning.
"Call 911 on your cell phone, let them know where you're at. Have a squad drive to where you're at -- that's what they're there for. We'd rather find out nothing was there, rather than something happen and we weren't called," said Chief Edwards.
In the meantime, they're teaming up with nearby departments to put a stop to it, because as the chief points out...
"These are happening in all the communities," said Edwards.
The chief says they know at this point it's more than one group behind the carjackings. He also says multiple arrests have been made recently.
The two involved in the attempted carjacking on 76th and Layton are in custody.