Having your car stolen might be an inconvenience for most people, but for those barely making it, suddenly losing a car throws things into a tailspin.
Across the city, car thefts are up 67 percent compared to two years ago. WUWM looks at the impact of a stolen car on one Milwaukee family.
It’s around 7 am and Cesar Torres is patiently urging his four-year-old son Arturo to put on his tennis shoes, but there’s a meltdown. He doesn’t want to wear the shoes his dad has handed him, and he doesn’t know where his others are.
After a few more minutes of searching, Torres finds them. The tears stop and Arturo smiles.
Arturo is the youngest of the three school aged kids. In total, Cesar Torres and his wife have six children.
By 7:10, the three oldest, along with their dad walk down the stairs of the duplex where they live and head to the bus stop about a five minutes away. The 17 and 9 year old will take two buses to get to their school, Bruce Guadalupe. Torres will drop Arturo off at La Causa before hopping on two more busses to get to work in downtown Milwaukee. He’s a chef and his work day is supposed to start at 7:30, but he says these days, he can’t get there on time.
“It’s a little bit hard,” Torres says.
The Torres family hasn’t always depended on the bus, but a few Sundays ago, someone stole their Dodge Caravan. He did not have car insurance.
Torres says he walked up and down the street looking for his vehicle thinking he may have parked it elsewhere. The car was a 2000 – making it a popular target. According to Milwaukee police, Dodge Caravans made between 1996 and 2005 are the vehicles most likely to be stolen here.
Torres was able to borrow a co-worker’s vehicle for about a week, but now he and his family are back on the bus. For him, because he works two jobs, it means he doesn’t get home until around 11 at night. Yet he’s most concerned about his family.
“This is the transportation for my kids to school, to church, to go to the store to buy something. And now, is (worse) because it’s cold outside and my kids are little babies. That’s not good,” Torres says.
Torres says he wants to buy another vehicle but doesn’t have the money right now. He says in a good month, he could put away only $50 to $100 toward another car.
“It’s devastating on a family,” Rose Hill says. She with the organization 1-800-Charity Cars. It gives cars to people who qualify across the country. Hill says unfortunately, the Torres story is all too common. A lot of people cannot afford to replace a stolen vehicle and the effects can compound.
“Without a car, it could possibly mean that they could lose their job. If they lose their job then they’re possibly going to lose where they’re living. It just affects the whole dynamic of the family,” Hill says.
Hill says last year her organization provided around 300 cars, but this year, donations are down. As for the Torres family, dad Cesar says they’ll have to continue to rely upon public transportation right now.
Editor's Note: After hearing this story, a WUWM listener has donated a minivan to the Torres family.
