On Wednesday, October 26th, 2022, at 2:17 am, a Stanislaus State Police officer near the intersection of Geer Rd and Regis St, Turlock, received an alert on his patrol vehicle’s LoJack receiver that contact had been received with a nearby LoJack equipped stolen vehicle.

The officer provided his dispatcher the code that his receiver was displaying and it returned to a brown Toyota pickup truck that had been reported stolen out of Ceres a few days prior.

The officer’s receiver indicated that the vehicle was west of him, so he began heading in that direction. The officer lost the signal after a few minutes, however, received it again at the intersection of Dels Ln and Pedras Rd, indicating that the vehicle was now southeast of him, which meant that it was moving.

The officer continued checking the area and eventually drove by Villa Napoli, 1102 Geer Rd, where his signal spiked. The officer checked Villa Napoli’s parking lot and found the vehicle.

With the assistance of the Turlock Police Department, a high risk stop was conducted and the vehicle’s single occupant was removed and detained at gunpoint.

The vehicle’s occupant, later identified as Devin Mickens, 27, of El Cajon, admitted that he had just been driving the vehicle, stated that he had no knowledge of it being stolen, and that he had just purchased it, however, history with him indicated that he had just been arrested about a month prior for possession of a stolen vehicle.

Mickens was arrested and booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center on charges of auto theft and possession of a stolen vehicle.

The vehicle was picked up by its rightful owner shortly later not wrecked, stripped, or burned.