Missouri man shoots thief who stole Amazon driver’s car

A Missouri man tracked down and shot a thief after they stole his mother-in-law’s car as she was delivering Amazon packages, police said.

The man’s mother-in-law had been driving for Amazon in in Sunset Hills around 5:00 a.m. Monday and left the car running while dropping a package off at a customer’s porch, news station KMOV reported.

A group of four men got out of a nearby SUV and quickly hopped into the driver’s BMW and drove off, police said.

Richmond Heights Police Chief Gerry Rohr told the station that the delivery driver’s son-in-law used the car’s remote GPS tracking function to locate the stolen vehicle.

“They came together driver’s door to driver’s door and they confronted each other while they both were sitting inside the car,” Rohr said.

The son-in-law shot the thief in the driver’s seat in the leg, and the group drove off, Rohr said. The stolen vehicle became disabled later at the intersection of Big Bend Boulevard and I-64 and the suspects ran past the police department into a nearby neighborhood.

The suspect who was shot suffered non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

Police arrested two adults and one juvenile and recovered two handguns, including an AR-15 pistol. Their identities have not been released.

The son-in-law has not been charged, but could face charges for unlawful use of a firearm, according to Rohr.

The police chief said vehicle theft has gotten so bad recently that it wouldn’t surprise him if other victims also take matters into their own hands.

“I worry about this type of incident occurring again and again and again, until this region starts to take auto crimes more seriously. And that includes a little more effort from our elected officials, prosecutors, judges and the juvenile court system,” Rohr said.

According to KMOV, Amazon drivers make deliveries as early as 4 a.m., and drivers making those early deliveries often have to use their own cars.