By Jean Cole
ATHENS — A McDonald’s customer trusted his instincts Monday and called Athens Police, prompting a foot chase that ended with the arrest of a suspect driving a car stolen from Georgia, an official said.
Jeffery Lee Story, 43, was charged with resisting arrest and first-degree receiving stolen property for possession a car stolen from DeKalb County, said Athens Police Capt. Marty Bruce.
Story approached a man who had stopped at the drive-through window at McDonald’s off U.S. 72 and told him something was leaking from his car, Bruce said. The man told Story he wasn’t far from work, so he would check it when he arrived there. Thinking Story was acting very suspicious, the man telephone police.
Officer Daniel McNatt responded and found Story sitting in a 2000 Mercedes at the fast-food restaurant, Bruce said. McNatt checked the car’s tag and found it wasn’t registered to the car. While checking the vehicle indentification number, McNatt learned the car was stolen from DeKalb County. As McNatt was trying to arrest Story, he fled. He was apprehended about 15 minutes later in a field in Summit Lakes Subdivision, Bruce said.
Story was transferred to the Limestone County Jail, where he is being held without bond.
Police do not know if Story was attempting to get the man out of his car so he could steal it or whether he had some other purpose for approaching him.
“It’s possible, but we don’t really know what he wanted to do,” Bruce said.
