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Imagine spending a lot of time saving up to buy a truck or a car you like only for it to be stolen. This happened with a Florida man named Jonathan who spent years saving up to buy a Ram TRX truck. His truck, however, ended up getting stolen. At first, the Florida resident tried to take the rational road and filed a report. When the investigation took a long time and nothing was happening, Jonathan took matters into his own hands. He tracked down his truck and drove over 800 miles to get it back. People believe that this is the only solution.
According to WSVN, the Florida man first filed a report with the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO). When they didn’t give him any updates, he decided to do something. “I started looking for the truck myself and started investigating everything,” he said. The first thing Jonathan did was to search for ads on Facebook Marketplace where a truck was on sale. He got lucky as he quickly Found such an ad for a truck in Miami. Unfortunately, after reporting to the BSO, the ad was taken down, and there was no chance to investigate it now.
What Happens Next?
The Florida man’s luck returned once again. While the truck’s GPS was disabled, he received a notification that 800 miles were added to the odometer, which let him know the distance traveled by his truck. “I just started checking Facebook Marketplace and all those areas that, you know, were in that radius,” he said. His searching skills proved to be useful as he managed to find a Ram TRX on sale for $80,000. The distance matched since it was 800 miles away in a city near Nashville, Tennessee.
The detective sense In the Florida man didn’t stop there. Jonathan checked the other cars the seller was offering and noticed that the pictures were taken in front of the same house. He ended up searching for that house on Google Maps for about nine hours. As you probably guessed, he found the house. Jonathan then reported this to the sheriff’s office in Tennessee and after a few hours, his truck was back with him. “If I didn’t do what I did, then the truck would probably be somewhere else right now,” he said, which is probably right. Now, the Florida man is becoming sort of a detective as he also managed to track down a friend’s car. So you probably know who to contact if you find yourself in a similar situation.
People Reacting to the Florida Man’s Story
The story was shared on Reddit, and almost everyone in the comments agreed with what the Florida man did. “If your car is stolen this is your best bet at recovery. Police will show up to an active crime scene but a past crime they just record,” one person wrote. That comment ended up making people come after the police for not doing their job. “Their job is to file a report to deliver to insurance companies,” one said. Another replied to that and wrote, “AND commit racism.” A third person chimed in and said, “Also shoot any nearby dogs.”
A Redditor also agreed with what the Florida citizen did and even shared their own story. “Heck yeah, I found my own stolen car years ago too. It’s the way. I had lo-jack on it,” they wrote. Another had a similar experience as they added, “I did that with my jeep. I found it parked at an apartment behind the gate. I jump the fence and drove off. It was a paint and body person who said they would do work for me.” Another said, “It 100% is easier to find a stolen car yourself than relying on police to do it. This has been the case since the invention of the Model T (assumably).” It’s a good thing that the Florida man didn’t lose hope and went after his truck. Hard work does pay off.
