Rantz: Stolen car was abandoned, then stolen again in matter of moments in Tacoma

A Pierce County Executive candidate and business owner said her car was stolen twice within just moments.

Kelly Chambers owns Visiting Angels, a home care facility in Tacoma. She said her business relies on Kia vehicles for managers and supervisors to visit clients. On August 30, one of her supervisors had a Kia stolen while visiting a client.

“She comes out, the car is gone, and our office started getting calls that the car was trying to run people off the road,” Chambers told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Chambers said the car was soon abandoned, but before she could retrieve it, a different thief stole it again. It wasn’t until Sunday that the car was abandoned and finally towed.

While car thefts have dropped since their 2022 and 2023 record highs, they remain significantly higher than before the 2020 left-wing criminal justice reforms. The Puget Sound Car Theft Task Force reported in April that 393 vehicles were stolen in Pierce County and 1,148 in King County, averaging about 51 stolen cars per day.

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With car theft spiraling out of control, this wasn’t Kelly Chambers’ only encounter with thieves. Another Visiting Angels employee had her car stolen in Tacoma.

While it was eventually recovered, “it’s been beat up pretty badly,” Chambers shared. The employee, a single mom of three, doesn’t have the money to fix it anytime soon.

Experiences like these have driven Chambers, who is also a state representative, to run for Pierce County Executive.

“There’s just been a lot of signals from the Left to criminals that anything goes,” Chambers explained. “And the reality is, somebody stealing a vehicle today is not going to spend the night in jail. They’re probably going to be released the same day. So, somebody is a ways off from really being prosecuted and held accountable for those kinds of things.”

As Pierce County Executive, Chambers aims to collaborate with the incoming Pierce County Sheriff and Prosecutor to target the offenders “causing the most havoc.” She wants to prioritize the top 10 most prolific offenders, stating, “They’re causing the most damage and making our neighborhoods unsafe.”

Chambers places much of the blame on Democrats in the state legislature passing soft-on-crime laws that embolden criminals. She’s especially concerned about the rise in juvenile crime, which is fueling the stolen car epidemic in Tacoma.

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Democrat-backed laws created the stolen car crisis in Tacoma and around the state

As part of Democrat-led legislation, a new law prohibits law enforcement from questioning juvenile suspects without a lawyer present, even if a parent gives permission. This law continues to stymie investigations involving juvenile crimes. As troublesome, juveniles serving in detention are housed with inmates as old as 25 years old, not merely other juveniles.

Chambers said we have to focus on accountability, but can’t stop there. We also must get at the root causes of juvenile crime.

“We need to be talking about drug use and abuse with kids, and really putting an emphasis there. One of my good friends started the Late Night at the Y program where he was going out on the streets and pulling kids out of gangs and into the gym where they could play basketball and have recreation,” Chambers said.

Though it seems simple, these kinds of programs can lead to big changes, Chambers said.

“I’m a parent,” she said. “I kind of believe in, (and) my parenting style is, keep kids busy enough that they aren’t overextended, but don’t have time to get in trouble.”

Chambers faces Pierce County Council member Ryan Mello, a Democrat, for the Pierce County Executive post. Mello has previously backed some of the very criminal justice reforms largely responsible for the current crime crisis.

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