North Portland woman’s stolen Kia involved in chase, wrong way crash

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Lauda Lacayo-Gilman is in complete disbelief.

“So, so many feelings,” she said.

Nearly two months ago, she reported her 2013 Kia Sorento was stolen near her apartment in North Portland and got a new car, figuring it was a lost cause. That is, until she got a call Wednesday morning that her stolen Kia had been found.

“At around 6 a.m., from the police department that my car had been found on 405. I’m like 405? Who leaves a car on 405?” she said.

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It wasn’t until she got a message from someone on the PDX Stolen Cars Facebook page saying her old car may have been involved in a pursuit and crash on I-405 North.

“As I’m processing this, then I start to read the story and even then, I’m skipping lines and jumping around just really trying to assess, is that my car? and I mean, it is,” Lacayo-Gilman said.

Just before 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said two deputies were near the North Lombard Transit Center when they stopped a suspected stolen car. Before deputies confronted the suspect, they said he reversed the Kia, hitting the Transit Police car, and took off, hitting another driver.

This started a pursuit onto I-5 South, but deputies lost the car. A few minutes later, it was reported the Kia was driving the wrong way on I-405 North, hitting two cars near the Northwest Glisan overpass. There was an adult in one car and an adult and a child in the other.

One adult was taken to the hospital and so was the child, just to be safe. The suspect driver, 30-year-old Kyle Voltz, and his passenger were also taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

The Kia Sorento was the fourth car stolen from Lacayo-Gilman in the last two years, but the other three were Subarus.

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“Shocking. It’s like this is the new normal,” she said.

She believes Kia needs to be held accountable for not having proper anti-theft technology.

“They are putting out fixes but for me it’s too late. For me, my car was stolen, a person almost killed a child and I mean, everyone needs to be compensated. Even the people who were hit by that stolen Kia,” Lacayo-Gilman said.

When Voltz is released from the hospital, the sheriff’s office says he’ll be facing assault and reckless driving charges, among others.

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