She left the car to warm up before school. Police pulled it from the fence

An opportunistic thief took advantage of a running car to go on a 20-minute ride Thursday morning in Kennewick.

A student started warming up the 1996 Honda Accord outside of a home on the 400 block of South Buntin Street around 6:20 a.m., Kennewick police Officer Cory McGee said.

The girl walked inside to get her mom to drive her to school. When she came back to the car, it was gone.

The car thief didn’t get too far before crashing into a fence near Finley about 20 minutes later, McGee said.

By the time police arrived, the thief was gone. No one saw the thief, McGee said.

Car theft is common in winter, police said, as people defrost windows by leaving their car running where a thief could get to it.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 5:47 PM with the headline "She left the car to warm up before school. Police pulled it from the fence."