Milwaukee residents noticed an unfamiliar car and called police. The car was stolen — from an alderman.

Ashley Luthern
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The car was gone.

Milwaukee Ald. Cavalier "Chevy" Johnson was sure he had parked his wife's Honda CRV on the slab behind their house.

Ald. Cavalier "Chevy" Johnson

But when his wife, Dominique, woke up in the middle of the night, she noticed it was not in the usual spot and asked Johnson if he had parked elsewhere in the neighborhood.

No, it was in the back spot, he replied. She told him to go look.

"Sure enough, it wasn't there," Johnson said in an interview.

Their Honda joined the list of 3,935 car thefts reported in Milwaukee as of Friday — an 11% drop compared to the number reported at the same time last year, according to Milwaukee police.

Johnson called police about the theft that morning, Sept. 19, and kept an eye out for the Honda as he used his family's second car to travel downtown to City Hall for meetings and throughout the north side neighborhoods he represents.

Two days later, he heard from a Milwaukee police officer. The Honda had been found four miles away, in a different neighborhood. Some residents there had noticed an unfamiliar car with unfamiliar people inside of it "acting suspicious" and called police, according to Johnson.

They noticed "something amiss about a vehicle that they had never seen parked
in their neighborhood," he said.

"They stepped up and didn't just ignore it," Johnson said.

Johnson said the Honda had a scuff on the back bumper but did not have any other damage. The ignition and steering column were intact, he added. He said he thought he had locked his car when he parked it that night.

No arrests have been made, but Johnson said he was grateful for the residents and Milwaukee police who helped his family get the car back.

"If you see something in your neighborhood, say something," Johnson said. "Don't leave it to somebody else to do it. Don't think somebody else is going to call."

"That's the only way we can claim our neighborhoods back and root out the folks doing bad stuff," he said.