HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – The owner of a stolen Jeep that was the center of a police chase and standoff Friday morning said she saw a thief stealing the vehicle out of her garage earlier this week.
Mary Smith said she was at her home near Willowbrook Mall Wednesday afternoon, when someone went into her open garage and stole her black SUV.
"I saw my Jeep screeching out of the garage backwards and I went chasing after it while dialing 911," Smith said.
She though it was gone for good.
“I thought they would find it a honked out mess on a back road somewhere," Smith said.
But Friday morning she received a call from authorities saying her SUV had been at the center of a police chase and standoff.
"I was shocked," Smith said.
The chase began after a man in Smith’s Jeep refused to pull over for a traffic stop. The man, identified as 29-year-old Cody David Shavell, refused to exit the SUV, prompting a SWAT standoff.
Officers eventually threw tear gas at the vehicle and Shavell jumped out. He tried to flee on foot, but was quickly apprehended by officers and a K-9.
"It was very dramatic," Smith said. "I think more dramatic than anything was the fact that they shot the tear gas into the Jeep."
Smith still does not have her Jeep back, but she said after the tear gas and everything else it went through, she's not sure she wants it.
Shavell is now behind bars in the Harris County Jail. Officials have not yet brought charges against him.