A series of reported vehicle-theft attempts near Highway 90 and Promenade in Stafford ended with the arrest of 40-year-old Jeremane Middleton, according to ABC13. Police said the encounters included an alleged shove that left a 76-year-old man on the ground and an attempt to take a running vehicle while a 10-year-old boy was inside.
What police say happened
ABC13 reported that the incidents began after a crash involving a white BMW and another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle, Myatt Hancock, told the station that a man tried to take his car after he got out to inspect the damage and pushed him to the ground. The suspect did not get the car started, according to the report. Houston police told ABC13 that the BMW had been reported stolen from a bank parking lot in southwest Houston shortly before the crash.
The reported encounters continued at a Frost Bank, where the suspect allegedly entered a woman's running vehicle while her 10-year-old son remained inside. ABC13 said the boy got out and alerted his mother, who pulled the suspect from the vehicle. The station also reported another attempted vehicle takeover before the suspect went to a nearby McDonald's, where he allegedly failed to enter a customer's pickup and climbed into its bed. Police arrested him there, according to the report.
Arrest status and what remains unclear
ABC13 identified the suspect as Middleton and reported that he remained in the Fort Bend County Jail as of Tuesday. The station also reported that records showed 13 prior Texas convictions and that Middleton pleaded guilty in June to a Fort Bend County theft charge and to attempting to tamper with evidence in Harris County. The available information cited here does not establish the final charges, disposition or sentence arising from the Stafford incidents.
The accounts describe alleged force or intimidation alongside attempted vehicle theft, but the available data do not establish how prosecutors will classify each encounter. The Texas Department of Public Safety, summarizing FBI definitions, says motor-vehicle theft is the theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. That category is not a direct count of carjackings, which can involve force or intimidation against a person.
The broader vehicle-theft picture
State and national trends provide scale, but not an explanation for this case. The Texas Department of Public Safety reported a 23.94% decrease in motor-vehicle-theft volume from 2024 to 2025. Separately, the FBI reported that motor-vehicle theft declined by between 16.2% and 26.9% across city population groups in 2024 compared with 2023. Neither measure specifically tracks forceful vehicle takings, and neither shows whether incidents are rising or falling in this Stafford corridor.
Prevention guidance focuses on reducing easy opportunities rather than predicting individual incidents. The National Insurance Crime Bureau advises drivers never to leave a vehicle running while unattended, warning that an empty running vehicle can attract opportunistic theft. An example of a broader prevention strategy comes from the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, which described a 2023 Lakewood, Colorado, program using tracking devices and steering-wheel locks to prevent theft and improve vehicle recovery. That program is a separate jurisdictional example, not evidence of a connection to the Stafford arrest.
For the Stafford case, the central questions remain which allegations will result in formal charges and how the court will resolve them. Until those records are available, the reported encounters should be treated as police allegations and news accounts of an arrest, not as proof of guilt.
