Miami-Dade deputies say they watched a man hot-wire a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado in a Dadeland Mall parking lot, then chased him across the county until he crashed into a fence outside Miami International Airport.
Brenton Burke, 49, was charged with grand theft, WSVN 7News reported.
He Switched Off the Truck’s Tracker
It started shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, when deputies spotted Burke hot-wiring the pickup at Dadeland, according to WSVN. He drove off and disabled the truck’s LoJack tracking system.
When deputies tried to pull him over, he took off at high speed and hit a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office cruiser along the way. The deputy inside wasn’t hurt.
The sheriff’s office helicopter tracked the Silverado to an employee parking lot near Miami International Airport, where Burke rammed a fence. Deputies arrested him there.
A parking garage at Miami International Airport. Image Credit: FunctioningMemberOfSociety via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
He Wouldn’t Talk
Burke was taken to the sheriff’s Kendall District Station, where he refused to speak with detectives, WSVN reported. He was then booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Full-size pickups are a favorite target for thieves because they’re valuable and their parts sell easily. Disabling an aftermarket tracker like LoJack is often one of the first things a thief does, which is why some owners hide a second, cheap tracker like an AirTag somewhere in the truck.
Vehicle theft has kept police busy this month. In Houston, police busted an alleged $3 million luxury car theft ring involving parents and their teenage sons.