Jarid Riley Taylor
On October 5th, employees of Tropical Foods had just opened the store on what they thought would be a typical Thursday morning until Jarid Riley Taylor, 36, spotted the keys in the ignition of the company vehicle and decided to take it for a joy ride.
As if it wasn’t easy enough to spot given the many ice cream business logos covering the 2016 Chevrolet van, the GPS system in the van allowed the store manager to detail to police officers where the van was headed.
Police pulled Taylor over on the 3200 block of North Mark Avenue, but he took off in the van once officers were out of their car and walking toward him.
Taylor drove to a big rig repair shop off Weber Avenue, parked the van, and pretended to be an employee of the shop when cops showed up. Officer spotted him and Taylor tried once again to evade arrest. After a short foot chase, Taylor was detained.
Taylor, who is wanted in Oklahoma for auto theft, was arrested and searched. Officers found a SIM card on Taylor’s person which belonged to the dash cam of the van.
Taylor thought removing the SIM card would disable any tracking devices. Instead he was charged with possession of stolen property in addition burglary, evading a peace officer, stolen vehicle, obstruction of a public officer, and unlawfully driving a vehicle. He was booked into Fresno County Jail.
