MACOGDOCHES (KYTX) -- Sheriff Thomas Kerss said this eight-year-old boy's help in finding the plane just goes to show, anyone can help law enforcement fight crime, at any age.
Madi Simmons may seem like your average third grade kid, but the Nacogdoches Sheriff has another name for him.
"He is a local hero," Kerss said.
Kerss said after a Cessna 182 went missing from the Athens Municipal Airport last week, both the Nacogdoches and Henderson County Sheriff's Departments began spreading the word.
"We have a few private landing strips throughout the county and so we also contacted those people," Kerss said.
One of those people; Jeremy Simmons.
"I heard an airplane land, and Madi comes running back to the bedroom and says, 'Dad, that airplane just landed in the front yard.' And I said, 'well get the number Madi, we need to verify that's it.'"
November 5-4-1-0.
And remembering that number is what led the sheriff's department to arrest 55-year-old Terry Lynn Boozer.
Kerss said Boozer may have been taking the plan for more than a few joy rides before he ended up in Nacogdoches.
"We do have reason to believe that it landed at other airport locations, or at least dirt strips somewhere," Kerss said. "There had been several hours of flight time logged on the plane before it arrived here."
"I was proud of my boy," Simmons said. "He did a good job."
Kerss agrees.
"This is just one great example of how receiving a little bit of information and some help from the community can have a very positive outcome," he said.
Madi said he plans to continue fighting crime when he's older and hopes to one day become a police man.
Because of the airplane's high value of about $110,000, Boozer has been charged with second degree felony theft. He's also charged with evading police. His bond for that is set at $2,500.
Sheriff Kerss also said Boozer is no stranger to the Nacogdoches County Sheriff's Office and was actually just out on bond from illegal drug and weapons charges at the time of this arrest.
