Man Pleads Guilty to Receiving Stolen Car Located by Flock System in 2024
NORFOLK, Va. — Shaun Mitchell, 41, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to receiving a stolen vehicle after the Flock license plate recognition system alerted police to him driving the vehicle last year.
On May 23, 2024, a woman reported to Norfolk Police that her 2017 Subaru Outback had been stolen from where she last parked it in front of her residence. Police submitted the Outback’s information to the Flock system, which sends an automatic alert to the nearest patrol car should the stolen car be recognized by a Flock camera.
On May 26, the Flock system notified an officer that the Outback was being driven near the intersection of Chesapeake and Lafayette boulevards, and the officer saw Mr. Mitchell in the driver’s seat of the Outback while Mr. Mitchell was parked at a nearby gas station. Mr. Mitchell got out of the car to go inside and make a purchase, and, when he saw the officer, he fled from the gas station on foot. Officers set up a perimeter around the area to locate Mr. Mitchell and found him about 15 minutes later hiding inside a wooden box outside a residence on Grandy Avenue. Mr. Mitchell had the key fob to the Outback in his front pocket and admitted to police that he knew the car was stolen because he was told so by the person who gave him the fob. Mr. Mitchell was charged with receiving an automobile knowing it to be stolen — a felony equivalent to grand larceny of an automobile — and Mr. Mitchell had prior felony convictions.
On Tuesday, Mr. Mitchell pleaded guilty as charged, and in exchange the Commonwealth agreed that Mr. Mitchell should receive credit on his sentencing guidelines for accepting responsibility for his actions. There is no agreement to Mr. Mitchell’s sentence, which will be left to the sole discretion of the judge. Judge Robert B. Rigney accepted Mr. Mitchell’s plea agreement and set his sentencing hearing on July 25.
“Receiving a stolen vehicle, knowing it to be stolen, is just as illegal in Virginia as committing the theft itself,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Mr. Mitchell should have had nothing to do with the car he was in, but he chose to put himself in this situation, and so he must serve a sentence that accounts both for his prior record and for his actions on this date. We will continue to pursue equitable and measured justice, balancing the needs of victims, the accused, and the community in the interest of public safety.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Grayson E. Savage is prosecuting Mr. Mitchell’s case, and Norfolk Police Sergeant Vincent R. Tocco led the investigation.
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