Akhria Cooper, left, and Derrick Taylor-Canty
Police: Man drives stolen car to jail to bond out girlfriend who was arrested for driving stolen car
Both suspects behind bars
Police shared images of this fraudulent VIN plate, which was found on one of four recently-recovered stolen cars that were in the possession of Duluth residents Derrick Taylor-Canty, 26, and Akhria Cooper, 24. (Special Photo)
Akhria Cooper was recently arrested for driving a stolen vehicle. (Special Photo)
Ride sharing services can be useful for a lot of things — like providing a means of transportation so you don’t have to drive to jail in a stolen car.
Yet that’s exactly what one man did recently when he went to bond out his girlfriend — who had been arrested for driving a different stolen vehicle — from the Gwinnett County Jail, police said.
To the uninitiated who read this story the first thought is probably,”How stupid can you get?” While that question may have merit, it doesn’t take into consideration how crooks think. Most crooks engage in hundreds of crimes before being caught. In their mind, their criminal responsibility ends with the getaway. If they don’t get caught in the act, then the proceeds of the crime are theirs.
Working undercover, I have ridden around with a carload of crooks, in search of a dope deal. It became obvious, from their conversation, that when they woke up in the morning they knew they were going to commit a crime. They didn’t know what crime, where or who the victim would be. It didn’t matter that they might only get ten cents on the dollar value, that was more than they started the day with.
Time after time I would arrest suspects who, if convicted, were looking at prison time. They accepted that fact calmly. The bitching and moaning started when they were informed that their ill gotten gains were being confiscated. That was their money!
I purchased a quantity of drugs from a suspect and paid for the drugs with marked money. The crook got to hold on to the money for maybe thirty seconds. He didn’t even have time to put it in his pocket. He accepted the fact that he was being arrested for selling dope to the police. He objected when we took the marked money back. That was his money!
These folks may have stolen the cars. Possibly they bought the cars knowing that they were stolen. The license plates had been switched, the VIN plate on the dashboard had been altered. In their mind, the cars were no longer stolen. The false documents had legitimized the cars.
The other part of this mindset is that crooks deserve every benefit of the doubt, every step of the way. Cops, courts and society, on the other hand must perform perfectly. Anything less than perfection invalidates any arrest or conviction.
One dope dealer said it best as he peered up from the pavement, after being arrested for selling crack to an undercover cop. “I didn’t sell no dope to the po-lice. Everybody knows it is against the law to sell dope to the police.”
