London, Ontario — What must have first felt like a cruel joke became all too serious for one London, Ont. couple, as Paige Chiacchia and Kevin Nyamutera were left helpless as both of their vehicles were stolen from their driveway, within the span of about 45 minutes, earlier in December.
Nyamutera was the victim of what is called a “warmup theft”; a practice among thieves to target vehicles that are left unattended in driveways while they heat up.
One stolen car is devastating enough, but when Chiacchia realized that the spare keys to her Ford Fusion were still on the keyring of Nyamutera’s Toyota RAV4, which was taken from their driveway about 30 minutes earlier, she knew the worst was yet to come.
In a tragic moment of irony, Chiacchia’s fears were proven valid.
“I was about to go buy a steering wheel lock … and Googling where to get one,” she told the CBC. “I got dressed and was about to go get the steering wheel lock and my car was also gone.
“We were sitting in the living room in dead silence, listening, and we could not hear a single thing. Not a car door, nothing.”
To say the couple was gutted to have their relatively new vehicles–and recently paid off, in Chiacchia’s case–stolen just before Christmas would be putting it lightly.
Luckily, the couple said they already had surveillance cameras on their wish list this year.
“Shout out to my Mom because they will be here Friday as an early Christmas gift now because of the urgency,” said Chiacchia. “I think they’ll act as a deterrent.”
