When You’re Better Off Skipping a Court Date
If you’re accused of a crime in the United States, there’s a good chance you won’t go to jail until you’ve been convicted. You may need to put up bail money, depending on the severity of the charge and the likelihood that you’ll not show up when your court date arrives; or you may just be instructed to show up lest you redouble your trouble. And that last part is the key point: if you’re told to come to court for a hearing or your trial, and you’re not there, you will likely be thrown in jail and have some time added to whatever your sentence would have been otherwise. So, you better show up.
But maybe there’s an exception to that rule, as alleged car thief Kody Adams demonstrated.
In September 2024, Adams arrived at the courthouse in Pawnee County, Oklahoma, for a hearing — he was out on bail after being charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle. In most cases, an alleged criminal who was released on bail walks into a courthouse by themselves — as they’re not in police custody, there are no cops accompanying them. The most common exception is when a defendant skips or otherwise misses their court date; in that case, authorities will dispatch law enforcement officers to bring the accused to court, sometimes even in handcuffs. Adams wanted to avoid that outcome, and he did whatever he could to get to court on time that day.
He was arrested anyway, and he very clearly deserved it.
On the day of his scheduled court appearance, Adams was at a gas station in Stillwater, Oklahoma (Payne County) about 30 minutes from the Pawnee County courthouse. (Here’s a map, roughly.) That’s a very reasonable place to be — you fill up your gas tank and drive yourself to see the judge. But Adams wasn’t there to top off his tank, and for good reason: he didn’t have a car. He went to the gas station to hitchhike, hoping to find someone who would drive him toward the court. Unfortunately, he didn’t find anyone willing to do so.
That’s when he noticed the emergency services truck pictured above. And that the operator of the vehicle had left it running. So Adams did what you’d expect from an accused car thief — he “borrowed” (in his words, per the New York Post) the truck, and drove himself to his court date.
Most people at gas stations would notice if their vehicle went missing, and the operator of the truck above was no exception. They contacted the police and, when Adams arrived at the courthouse in the stolen truck, police on site noticed. As the Guardian reported, Adams “was arrested by a highway patrol trooper as he walked into the courthouse for his hearing.”
The officer who arrested Adams (this time), Ryan Long, stayed for the duration of the hearing — and then, when the hearing was over, arrested Adams for stealing the truck. Long, per the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Facebook’s page, then brought Adams from the Pawnee County courthouse to the Payne County jail for processing.
Adams was convicted of unauthorized use of a vehicle in Pawnee County on December 3, 2024, and was sentenced to five years in prison, with the jail time deferred pending the completion of a court-ordered probationary program. Ten days later, he was convicted of unauthorized use of a vehicle in Payne County and given the exact same sentence again. It is unclear how he gets to his appointments with his probation officers.
Bonus fact: In 2014, an Oklahoma woman (what’s up with Oklahoma and weird car thefts?) only identified as “Shelby” called her mechanic with some bad news — she had to cancel her scheduled service appointment because someone had stolen her car. That phone call turned out to be fortuitous. The next day, the owners of the auto shop were about to head out to lunch when they noticed a car matching Shelby’s description nearby. They called Shelby to confirm that she hadn’t somehow gotten her car back and then decided to tail the driver and call the police with real-time updates. As News on 6 Oklahoma reported, “Finally, after a 15-minute-long chase, [the driver] pull[ed] into a Hobby Lobby parking lot where police officers catch up and make the arrest.” The auto body shop owners had a dashboard camera running during the adventure; you can watch it here, including the phone call to Shelby. It’s enthralling, but be warned, there’s a lot of foul language, particularly in the beginning.
From the Archives: The Bug in the Plan: A car theft foiled… by a mosquito?