Lyft Driver Makes Citizens Arrest During Car Burglary

It was Friday morning, around 5 o’clock, when Jermaine Perry pulled onto his street.

The Lyft driver says he had a customer in his vehicle, but decided to take a route that past him home so that he could check-up on his family.

In the dark shadows, he says he saw someone breaking into his son’s Crown Victoria.“As I was pulling up I noticed the young man in the car. I thought it was my son, but I realized it wasn't my son because I asked him what is he doing out this early,” Perry says.

He says the man started to walk off, and then sprinted away. That’s when Perry says he kicked his house slippers off and chased after him, tackling him down over on the next block.

He asked that we conceal his home address, as the neighborhood has been targeted by thieves, and he thinks they might be working together.

Perry then walked him back up the street, and called his family for help.

“I went in the house and I went and got a bat, and gave it to one of my sons, and told him, if he moves...you use it,” Perry says.

Perry says he also told the suspect he had a gun and brought his dog out for protection until police arrived. The auto burglar was soon identified as 18-year old Ryan Andre Jones according to investigators.

Perry says the teen told him he was looking for money to get food, and only had about $2 in change on him and a portable cellphone charger when he was arrested.

“The instinct of fear never kicked in, it was the instinct of protect,” Perry says. “I just did everything I can do to just protect my family.

Perry says one of his neighbors checked their security footage and caught the suspect on tape walking up to their vehicles.

However, he says nothing was stolen from that home.