Car dealer helps locate car during police pursuit - wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports

Car dealer helps locate car during police pursuit

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By Matt McCutcheon - bio | email

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A car chase turned into a stand off and shooting with police. 

The chase started in Jeffersonville, Indiana and ended in a standoff in Valley Station after a car dealer using a GPS system was able to help police.

"The victim called and said they went out to go to work and their car was gone," said Brad Thomas with Jim Brown Auto Sales off Poplar Level Road.

The owner of the stolen car called the dealer, who checked the GPS unit.

"The car was over in Jeffersonville, Indiana. I called police and gave them step by step tracking of where the car was. It was at a McDonald's then at a Swifty gas station," Thomas said.

Thomas then kept a close eye on the car to tell police its every move.

"It was going down I-65 and I was able to look at the speeds of how fast the car was going and it reached speeds of 95 miles per hour," Thomas said.

The tracking device is actually put on by some dealers, like Jim Brown.

"It's our collateral, we want to be able to find our vehicle if someone's not making their payments on it. This just happened to be a special situation where it served another purpose of being able to track the car and being able to retrieve it," Thomas said.

The device itself is actually about the size of a small cell phone and is placed inside the vehicle, tucked away under the dash. Despite being out of sight, officials say they can still get a pretty good read.

"We were able to track it the whole time and once it came up zero miles per hour we knew they had him," Thomas said.

Police say the chase crossed state lines, and came to an end outside a Valley Station home.

Police say that's where Timothy Ray Webb, 45, broke down the door of his ex-girlfriends home, and later shot himself after a stand-off with police.

"I saw the gun and everything it put us in shock, it was scary," said witness Paul Bruce.

After things calmed down, the stolen car was returned to the victim later in the afternoon.

"Without the device the car could have been scrapped and no one would have ever known where the car was," Thomas said.

Copyright 2012 WAVE News. All rights reserved.

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