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Police officer with handcuffs
They say there’s no honor among thieves, and one man in Maryland recently learned that the hard way after calling the police because someone stole his truck before ending up in handcuffs after they determined it was taken while he was burglarizing a store he broke into.
There is obviously no set of codified rules that criminals subscribe to, but there are plenty of guidelines rooted in common sense that you typically want to follow if you’re attempting to break the law without getting caught.
For example, you usually want to avoid committing multiple crimes at the same time; if you are, for example, using a car to transport some sort of illegal goods, it’s a good idea to avoid speeding or any other traffic violations that would attract the unwanted attention of law enforcement.
It is also probably a good idea to avoid calling the police to the scene of a crime you recently committed, which is basically what one man in Maryland did after he was the victim of a theft as he was allegedly orchestrating one of his own.
Police arrested a man who called them because his truck was stolen as he was allegedly burglarizing a Verizon store
According to Fox5, members of the Howard County Police Department were dispatched to a 7-Eleven on Route 40 in Ellicott City, Maryland on the morning of June 25 in response to a call from a man named Jalen Godard, who said his truck had been stolen.
Body cam footage showed officers arriving on the scene around 30 minutes after they responded to a another call concerning a burglary that had unfolded at a Verizon store directly across the street, which was perpetrated by someone who was cut while crawling through the window they broke to gain access.
It didn’t take long for police to start putting the pieces together, as the person who robbed the store was wearing glasses tucked into the balaclava they donned to attempt to hide their identity. They were also able to determine the thief had suffered a wound due to the blood that was spotted on the broken glass, which was also smeared on Godard’s glasses and the hand he attempted to conceal while being interviewed about his stolen truck.
Don’t you hate it when your car gets stolen while you’re committing a burglary?
Great work by PFC Buchanan connecting the dots to the burglary across the street when this suspect called to report his car was stolen.
Karma, indeed. pic.twitter.com/TzihxyKjXH
— Howard County Police Department (@HCPDNews) July 2, 2026
That was enough evidence to arrest the 29-year-old, who was charged with burglary, theft, and destruction of property after being cuffed by an officer who couldn’t help but note the karmic nature of the situation.
It is currently unclear if police have any leads on his stolen truck.