On Tuesday, April 23, at approximately 9:20 a.m. Deputy Carter conducted a traffic stop on a silver Chrysler sedan with a Wisconsin tag, for traveling 31 mph in a 20-mph school zone. The driver of the vehicle was identified as Jayden Reed, a 17-year-old who said he was new to the area and did not realize he was driving through a school zone. Deputy Carter gave him a written warning.
A few hours later however, the Flager County Sheriff’s Communications Center received information that a silver Chrysler matching the plate of the one that had been stopped earlier that morning, had just been reported stolen. Reed, the driver of the vehicle, had also been entered as a missing person by the Green Bay Police Department in Wisconsin.
With information gathered from the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC), Deputy Schmidt located the vehicle at Daily’s Gas Station at 2 Boulder Rock Dr. in Palm Coast. After additional units arrived, they conducted a high-risk traffic stop. Reed and his passenger, Katie Stevens, 18 from Seymour, Wisconsin were removed from the vehicle.
Through investigative means, deputies determined that Reed had stolen the vehicle from his father while he was away on business. He was restricted from driving his father’s car after being stopped by local law enforcement in Green Bay, Wisconsin a few weeks prior for driving recklessly. He had stolen the keys and left Wisconsin two or three days prior to the traffic stop in Palm Coast. Reed was arrested for Grand Theft Auto and was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility before being turned over to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) in Daytona Beach.
Stevens said she was traveling with Reed and her boyfriend, but claims her boyfriend was arrested on their way to Florida. She was ultimately also arrested for Grand Theft – Auto and Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. She was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility where she is currently being held on $2,000 bond.
“I’m incredibly proud of our hardworking team for quickly responding to alerts for a missing child and stolen vehicle,” said Sheriff Rick Staly. “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, and his adult accomplice gets to spend the remainder of her Florida vacation in the Green Roof Inn.”
For bodycam of the arrest: https://bit.ly/4dcli7m
