Jerome Sgt. Duane Rubink said the incident started around 6:40 p.m. when Cruz-Vasquez went to the Jerome County Sheriff's Office on Lincoln Street and "demanded to be arrested and deported." When authorities declined to make the arrest, Rubink said, Cruz-Vasquez walked a few blocks to the Police Department, where he allegedly broke a window in the squad car and made off with the vehicle.

County and local police used an active cell phone which was left in the squad car to track its location. After about an hour Cruz-Vasquez's trip came to an abrupt halt when the vehicle ran out of gas in nearby Carey, Idaho. The homesick immigrant was arrested for felony grand theft auto and taken back to the Jerome County Sheriff's Office where his adventure had begun earlier that evening.