About two weeks ago, 17-year-old Jordan–that’s not his real name–was stopped by Green Bay police in Wisconsin for driving recklessly. He was driving his father’s 2015 Chrysler. His father, who travels out of state for work, placed him on “restriction” and locked the keys away. He was forbidden to drive the car under any circumstance.
Tuesday morning during rush hour a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over a 2015 silver Chrysler with Wisconsin tags. Jordan was at the wheel. He’d been allegedly going 31 in a 20 mph school zone. “Oh, it’ a school zone? I’m sorry,” he told the deputy. He got a speed warning, and was told to make sure not to let his registration expire at the end of the month. “This is my dad’s, he takes care of all of this,” Jordan said.
Two and a half hours later, shortly after the Sheriff’s Office got a be-on-the-lookout for a missing child–Jordan–and a stolen 2015 silver Chrysler, a deputy located the car at Daily’s, the convenience store on Boulder Rock Drive. This time deputies approached the car very differently, drawing their guns and ordering the occupants out of the car, hands held high. Out came Jordan tentatively, uncomprehendingly. “What did we do?” he asked the deputy as he was made to kneel on the ground while the deputy handcuffed him.
Deputies then ordered the passenger out–Katie Stevens, 18, of Seymour, a town about the size of Bunnell in east-central Wisconsin best known, when it is known at all, for its Hamburger Hall of Fame and its annual Burger Fest. She followed directions and was similarly handcuffed and arrested.
Deputies spoke with Jordan’s father by phone, learning that he was in South Carolina on business and had others watch his son while he was away, and also to learn about the car keys having been locked away. Jordan’s father gave deputies permission to interrogate his son, who then described breaking into his father’s bedroom with a key to find the car keys and drive off. He said he ran away “because of his father,” according to an incident report.
Stevens told deputies she was traveling with Jordan and her boyfriend to meet Jordan’s girlfriend, though she was aware Jordan had no permission to drive, let alone leave the state. She did not see his age as an issue. Her boyfriend was somehow arrested in Georgia the day before, and she and Jordan kept traveling, fully aware that the Chrysler could be reported stolen. She wanted to help Jordan. At least that’s what she told deputies, according to the incident report. But she at no point drove the car or paid for gas, she said, helping only to pay for meals. It’s not clear if they had burgers.
“However,” the incident report states, Stevens “is an adult, and was fully aware that [Jordan] was not supposed to leave his home, nor take his father’s vehicle. Katie made no attempts to alert law enforcement that [Jordan] was running away from home, she rather provided him company and companionship to assist [Jordan] in his travels.”
Both were charged with grand theft auto, a third-degree felony, though Jordan was charged as a juvenile and transferred to the Department of Juvenile Justice in Daytona Beach. Stevens, who was also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor, was booked at the Flagler County jail on $2,000 bond, where she remained Thursday afternoon. Roger’s Towing removed the Chrysler, an expense Jordan’s father is expected to assume, among other local legal and travel expenses.
“I’m incredibly proud of our hardworking team for quickly responding to alerts for a missing child and stolen vehicle,” Sheriff Rick Staly was quoted as saying in a release. “A runaway in a stolen car is a recipe for disaster but due to our team’s efforts a stolen car was safely recovered, a missing juvenile was found and arrested before anyone could get hurt.” He said Stevens now gets to spend the rest of her Florida vacation in jail.
