A South Bend woman is upset and shocked after her good deed ended with a 13-year-old stealing her car.
Around 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning on Huey Street, a middle schooler asked neighbors for a ride to school.
While waiting for that same neighbor to get him lunch money, he took off in the car.
“Please don’t do me like this, that’s all I kept saying,” said Lakenda Denise Hale.
Hale was pleading with the middle schooler as he took off in her 1997 Toyota Corolla.
"That’s all I have, that and my four cats,” said Hale.
Hale and Roosevelt Stewart spotted the young boy walking on Huey Street.
Hale agreed and even offered lunch money to him when he said he had nothing to eat.
When she went to retrieve her wallet, the boy drove off in her car, with her belongings inside.
“We didn't think he would do anything like that, we were getting him to school, that’s all he wanted, was to get to school,” said Stewart.
A report was filed with the police when the vehicle was stolen but Hale didn't want the theft to end in a greater tragedy.
“I said if it's moving don't go to it because he is going to get scared and leave - I don't want the young man to get hurt,” said Hale.
Despite the disappointment, Hale and Stewart said that this won't deter them from digging deeper into the problems that young people in the community are facing.
“We want to get to the underlying issues that's getting our teens to act out the way they are acting out,” said Stewart.
“I am hurting right now, but I will get over it - but I'll never stop,” said Hale.
The woman's phone which was thrown out of the car window down the street was found.
Someone else found and retrieved the car and it's now back in Hale's possession.
As of right now, the teen has not been located.