Pregnant mom in 'grave' situation after thieves steal car just before Halloween

SEATTLE – A single mom is asking the community for help after thieves made off with her family’s only vehicle just before Halloween. 

The ghastly deed left her without wheels to take her daughter trick-or-treating.

But, perhaps the worst trick of all, the thieves also made off with her ID, laptop, and sentimental items she had stored in the trunk.  

Ashley Nygren-Yee has three jobs. During the week, she works at a Seattle funeral home. She often finds some moments of peace by walking through the graveyard. 

“I like it because it’s really peaceful. It’s a break from the city life. You get to observe the nature around you,” said Nygren-Yee. “You hear the crows, sometimes you see coyotes out here.”

For Nygren-Yee, it’s not the dead that are the problem this Halloween, but the living. 

“It’s like once I feel like I’m a step ahead, something or someone, the living knocks me back down,” she said. “The dead are absolutely not the problem.”

Early Wednesday, someone stole her Volkswagen Passat sedan as it sat parked in front of her apartment complex off of NE 125th Street in Seattle. The car is pictured below:

“I came outside my kitchen door and my car was not there, all that was left was a dry spot where my car had been,” she said.  

Ashley used the car daily to commute and take her daughter Anya to daycare.

“I’m a single mom living in Seattle, and I’m pregnant. And, it just feels like every single day I’m working hard to provide for my family,” said Nygren-Yee. 

She now has to take the bus there on an hour-long commute. With her car, it took only about 15 minutes. Additionally, besides her job at the funeral home, she also used her car to commute to work at two additional jobs at McDonald’s and for DoorDash.   

“Now I don’t even have the option to DoorDash for that extra gap for finances like food or like paying a bill that’s overdue,” Nygren-Yee said. “It’s putting me in a situation where I had plans to use my car to make more money, to pay for items that will be shut off next week. We are always like an incident away, one paycheck away from being out of a home. It makes my anxiety a little bit more.”

Her ID was also in the car along with other family documents. She said she was storing them in the vehicle after a recent break-in inside her apartment. She had planned to change the locks to her apartment, then move everything back in. But thieves got to her vehicle first. 

Pictures of her dad, holding her when she was little, also vanished, along with other sentimental items from her childhood in Hawaii. 

“My high school varsity letter from cheerleading, pictures of my grandmother who is since deceased,” said Nygren-Yee. 

She started a GoFundMe page, hoping to help dig herself out of the mess thieves left her in. 

“The dead get to rest, the living have to keep on fighting every day and that’s just what I feel like I have been doing,” she said.  

Ashley’s friend told her she spotted her stolen car in the Redmond area at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night. When the friend tried to take a picture, the driver sped away and fled at speeds of 100 mph. If you have seen the vehicle, contact the Seattle Police Department.

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