Thief arrested after programming his home address into stolen car's GPS

When Sheriff's deputies in Jefferson County, Alabama, tried to track a stolen car left at the scene of another crime on Saturday night, they found a strange address programmed into the vehicle's GPS system under the category 'Home.' It was the address, they say, of the car thief. Deputies were dispatched at about 9pm to a home in Pinson to investigate a report of a car break-in.

The victim told deputies he caught a man breaking into his truck. When he confronted him, the man ran away, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian. The suspect, however, left a car in front of the victim's home. Deputies called the car's registered owner, and found out it had been stolen. A tracking dog was brought in to help hunt the suspect. The dog tracked to an area of nearby Crossbrook Lane.



A GPS device located in the stolen car showed an address of 6700 Crossbrook Lane as "home," Christian said. Deputies went to the address and found the suspect hiding under the porch in the backyard. The suspect told deputies that he wanted to turn himself in for "making a bad choice and stealing a car."

Authorities charged Donnie Jaydon Terry, 18, with first-degree theft of property, unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle and criminal mischief. He remains in the Jefferson County Jail with bonds totalling $20,300. "This was good work by the person reporting and our deputies,'' Christian said. "I'm not thinking he would have offered the 'made a bad choice' revelation short of being caught, but apology accepted anyway."