Police investigating vehicle thefts, car break-ins at Kansas City Zoo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A man was stranded at the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium over the weekend after his car was stolen.
It happened Sunday, but he said what may be just as concerning, staff told him the cameras that would’ve captured video of the theft are down.
Turns out he’s not alone.
“I was like how am I going to get home?” Max Grace said. “I had no car, we were basically stranded,” Grace said.
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Grace and his friend drove from St. Joseph for a fun day trip to the Kansas City Zoo. Instead, he said his car was stolen.
“We asked security what the best option was, if someone could take us to a bus station, and it was $250 to Uber to St. Joe.”
Just before 5p.m. Sunday, they walked out to find his car, gone.
It’s a 2019 White Hyundai Elantra, with four Missouri Western student tags on the back.
“I was kind of angry and upset,” Grace said.
Kansas City police said two vehicles were stolen from the zoo’s parking lot over the weekend and two others were broken into. They’re investigating.
A camera sat above where Grace’s car was stolen at the zoo. He ran to talk with security.
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“The cameras didn’t work because they said the whole city of Kansas City doesn’t have cameras right now because of a hack.”
FOX4 saw zoo security roaming the parking lots Monday. The zoo said rangers regularly patrol parking lots and they have security on site 24 hours a day.
A spokesperson with the zoo said the two big parking lots between the zoo and Starlight Theatre are owned and operated by Kansas City, Missouri.
The zoo said it has been made aware that those security cameras are currently down.
They didn’t know about the cause or timeline.
The City said in a statement: “The City of Kansas City’s camera system is fully operational and has not experienced any recent outages. A previous systems outage for the City of Kansas City’s computer system is unrelated and did not impact City cameras.”
Kansas City police said the past few weeks some of their “access to city cameras has been limited.
Grace took to Facebook with his concerns.
Mayor Quinton Lucas responded to Grace’s post on social media writing in part, “Very concerned to hear this. Please call me or text… and we can address the many issues you confronted today.”
“I’m hopeful that he will give me an answer because he seemed like he wanted to be on top of it,” Grace said. “but about finding my car, I’m not really hopeful on it.”
Grace also said it took an hour and a half to file a police report. Grace said he was directed to talk to several different people who referred him back to the original person, saying it was frustrating.
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Police said it in a statement to FOX4 regarding customer service in general: “If you are the victim of a crime and you call to make a police report, you should be given service. In the event the number you have reached is an element of the agency that does not generate police reports you will be directed to an element that does. If there is a situation where a citizen is not given the service they deserve, I encourage them to let our agency know so we can look into these matters accordingly. We want to address any and all concerns, and if it pertains to our performance, we want to know so we can better serve moving forward.”
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