MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When Shaun Redman set out to recover his stolen SUV, little did he know it would help three other car theft victims get their vehicles back.
Redman said he was eating at Chili’s near Wolfchase Galleria Saturday with his wife and members of his son’s baseball team, but when they walked outside, they got a jaw-dropping surprise.
“I think me and my wife both looked at each other about the same time,” said Redman.
His 2007 Chevy Trailblazer was missing. Thieves had popped the lock and driven off in it.
“We watched the footage where it happened also and in less than three minutes they were breaking in the vehicle and gone with it,” said Redman.
Because Redman’s Chevy is financed, it had a GPS tracking device.
It wasn’t long before police tracked it down to an industrial building on Old Highway 78 near the Olive Branch border.
When officers arrived at that location they said they spotted the man’s stole car parked in the back of the property along with several other cars, covered engines, transmissions, trailers and other vehicle parts.
“It was parked on top of, you know, car parts, electric fans, drive shafts, you know, so you can tell they’d definitely been taking vehicles apart out there,” Redman said, who owns an auto shop himself.
On Tuesday, officers returned to the property and spoke with the owner, Kelsey Jones, who gave them permission to search the property. That’s when they found three vehicles that had been stripped.
All of those vehicles came back stolen, police said.
Jones was charged with four counts of theft of property and violation of chop shop law.
“Other people are getting their stuff back too, so I’m thankful we were able to help other people also,” said Redman, who recommended other drivers install tracking devices on their vehicles.
