OKLAHOMA CITY – A metro woman used advanced technology to track down her stolen car.
The owner of a 2007 Mazda 6, who did not want to be identified, was visiting a friend Saturday night in Del City when her car was stolen.
Three days later, she realized technology was on her side.
Even though her car was banged up and sitting under the I-40 overpass near Tinker Diagonal and East Reno, she was just glad to be looking at it.
“I was ecstatic,” she said. “I was happy. I knew it was going to be ok after that.”
She gained hope of finding her car Tuesday, when she realized GPS had been installed at the time she bought it from David Stanley Kia.
“They’ve contacted me about ten times from that night until about an hour ago,” she said.
In less than eight hours, the dealership pinged her car in the 1500 block of East Euclid.
She went to that location and stayed on the phone with police while her heart was thumping.
“I saw the car in the driveway parked two houses down and we waited,” she said. “I told (police) where they left, which street they took , east, west, north, south and within two minutes, they were on them and he took off.”
Police say two men, Christopher Lewis and Jeffrey Allen, led them on a chase reaching speeds over 100 miles per hour on Reno.
Just when officers backed off, the suspects lost control turning a corner and crashed.
Jeff Nguyen was the man at David Stanley Kia who gave the vehicle owner the good news.
“When she answered the phone, I told her we found her vehicle,” he said. “I could tell she was jumping up and down and was like ‘oh thank goodness’ and so we were really happy we were able to help her.”
“Man, it’s awesome,” the owner said of having GPS in her car. “It is. It’s really good because this wouldn’t have happened, had it not been for (GPS). I wouldn’t have known where that car was.”
The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s web site shows Lewis was booked on several charges, including unauthorized use of a vehicle and eluding a police officer.