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Detroit mom turns detective after car break-in
It happened Saturday evening near McNichols and Shaefer, Detroit police took a report – but Faustine Onweneme couldn’t wait.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - A single mother from Detroit stopped at her favorite restaurant near Sinai-Grace Hospital for 10 minutes, and when she returned to her car, her world turned upside down.
"When I came back, I looked, and I said, 'The window is busted,'" she said.
Like many people, her entire life was in her car—her phone, wallet, work badge, and computer.
"I was devastated. I feel like my identity was being taken away from me little by little," she said.
The incident happened on Saturday evening near McNichols and Schaefer. Detroit police took a report, but Faustine Onweneme couldn’t wait.
"When I got home, something told me to call my phone, so I called my phone, and the thief answered," she said.
She soon learned the thieves were 14- and 15-year-old boys. She has a son who is 13.
"It was a blessing in a weird way."
Instead of being angry, she acted as a mom.
"I called back and texted him continuously, 'Why me?'" she said. "After 19 minutes on the phone, I talked to him, and he said, 'The least I can do for you is take your ID to this abandoned house off of Seven Mile and Evergreen, and I'll leave it in the mailbox for you.'"
At this point, Detroit police were fully involved.
"The police were astounded; they're like, 'That’s not normally how things go,'" she said.
Call it good karma — her phone showed up in an abandoned, stolen Kia on the city's east side, likely taken by the same teens.
But they made a rookie mistake - linking their social media to her phone, allowing her to track their crime spree, which helped her retrieve her stolen computer on the east side.
She felt like her life was uprooted.
"Especially when you're a single parent," Onweneme said. "Today, I had to cancel bank cards and get the car window fixed, so I didn't even go to work."
The Detroit Police Department is still on the case; it's unclear if the boys will face charges.
"With it being a child, my heart was just different," she said. "Most people would want to see them in jail or see them get criminal charges, but I just look at it as a kid that's going the wrong way."
It's important to stress that police don't recommend this.
Onweneme did have officers retrieve her belongings; she didn’t go alone.