a 1-year-old baby in that car! This really happened:

http://ktla.com/2016/01/07/amber-alert-requested-after-man-steals-minivan-with-1-year-old-boy-inside/

Thieves are getting more brazen by the day. Usually, stolen cars are recovered within a few days. If it's a very new car, it may have some sort of electronic tracer in it (like a LoJack) to aid police in the recovery.

I once had a motorcycle stolen while parked on a street in Glendale, CA. The San Bernardino County Sheriff eventually found it, crashed on I-15 in Baker, and found the two guys who apparently were thrown off and injured (hard to hide from The Law in Baker) but they spent only overenight in jail and were then released.