An 85-year-old man was roughed up near the JC Penney at Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn as two teenagers allegedly tried to steal his car, according to police. The suspects, ages 13 and 15, didn’t get far — a police drone tracked them down shortly after the attempted carjacking, according to authorities.
According to FOX 2 Detroit, Dearborn Police identified the two suspects as a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old who allegedly attacked the elderly victim in an attempt to take his vehicle near the mall’s JC Penney entrance. Police say the teens fled the scene, but officers deployed the department’s aerial drone system to locate them, and the aircraft helped officers track down the pair soon after.
The arrest is the latest example of Dearborn’s Drone as First Responder program doing exactly what city officials designed it to do. Dearborn became the first municipality in Michigan to roll out a full-scale DFR program, placing Skydio drones at launch sites across the city capable of reaching any location within two and a half minutes, according to DroneXL.
A Pattern of Drone-Assisted Arrests
This isn’t the first time the technology has helped officers close out a chase quickly. The same system was credited with tracking down a home invasion suspect hiding in bushes two weeks ago, and it was used in September to catch suspects fleeing an attempted vehicle theft, per ClickOnDetroit. Hoodline previously covered that bushes case in detail, and also reported on an April incident where the drone fleet helped officers find vehicle theft suspects in under a minute…