A South Florida man was driven to take action after, he says, investigators took too long to track down his stolen truck.
His own search steered him hundreds of miles away from home. 7’s Heather Walker investigates.
It took years of saving money before Jonathan was able to buy the pricey pickup truck he always wanted: a Ram TRX.
But in just few months, it was stolen.
Jonathan: “You know, I was in shock.”
He filed a report with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, but he says he never heard back from them, so he decided track down the truck without their help.
Jonathan: “I started looking for the truck myself and started investigating everything.”
He searched ads on Facebook Marketplace and eventually found a post about a truck for sale in Miami.
Jonathan reported the ad to BSO, but says it was taken down before anyone could investigate.
Jonathan: “I was never going to see it again.”
A few weeks later, Jonathan got a clue about where his truck had been taken. Even though the truck’s GPS was disabled, he still got a notification on his phone that 800 miles had been added to the odometer.
Jonathan: “And I just started checking Facebook Marketplace and all those areas that, you know, were in that radius.”
Jonathan eventually found an ad for a Ram TRX. It looked like his truck, and it was 800 miles away in a city outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Someone was selling it for $80,000. The person who posted the ad had several vehicles for sale, and some of them appeared to be parked in front of the same house.
Jonathan: “So I spent nine hours on Google Maps just looking for that specific house.”
Jonathan searched every road in that area until he found the house matching the one in the ads. He reported his discovery to the sheriff’s office in Tennessee and hopped on a flight. A few hours later, deputies found his truck.
Jonathan: “I got my [expletive] truck back!”
7Investigates reached out to BSO, but no one would comment on an active investigation.
Jonathan: “If I didn’t do what I did, then the truck would probably be somewhere else right now.”
His efforts have given him a new mission: tracking down stolen cars.
Jonathan: “I already found another car that belonged to a friend of mine, and that car was in Texas. So he got his car back, and now we’re looking for another.”
And while he looks for cars, Jonathan is also being steered toward a new career as a detective.
