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Three people were arrested in a Madison car theft Sunday, including the vehicle’s owner, after police say she tracked down the thief and battered him with an ice scraper.

Madison police were dispatched to a reported vehicle theft on the city’s East Side around 6:30 p.m., according to a statement from police spokesperson officer Stephanie Fryer.

Shortly after making the report, the woman who owned the vehicle set out with a man to look for it, Fryer said.

When they found the vehicle in traffic near East Washington Avenue at Stoughton Road, they pulled the man who’d stolen it out of the driver’s side window and beat him to the point that he required stitches, Fryer said.

The alleged thief, a 34-year-old McFarland man, “actively resisted officers,” for which he was arrested on tentative charges of resisting arrest and operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent. He was jailed after being medically cleared at a local hospital.

The car’s owner, a 32-year-old Madison woman, and a 23-year-old Fitchburg man were taken into custody on tentative charges of substantial battery. The woman also had a probation hold.

Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 11, 2024, Madison saw 342 car thefts.