Memphis Owner Found His Stolen 2014 Corvette Before Police Did. Inside: A Non-Original Key and a Full-Auto Rifle

The man whose 2014 Chevrolet Corvette was stolen in Memphis last week found it himself two days later, backed into a lot in Southeast Memphis with two people inside and, according to police, an AR-style rifle that had been converted to fire fully automatic.

The account comes from the Memphis Police Department, as reported by WREG on Oct. 18. Police said the Corvette, valued at over $24,000, was taken Thursday, Oct. 15, from the 2500 block of Four Seasons Drive. Two days later, the owner told officers he had received information that it was parked in the 5900 block of Mount Moriah Extended.

Officers found Terrance Brooks, 25, in the driver’s seat with a key to the car. Police said it was not the original key. Coriunna Love, 21, was in the front passenger seat with the rifle at her feet. Both are charged with theft of property valued at $10,000 to $60,000 and with possessing a prohibited weapon, which the charge lists as a machine gun conversion device. Both are presumed innocent.

WREG reported that Love was released on a $10,000 bond and had a bond review hearing set for Tuesday, Oct. 20. Brooks was scheduled for his first court appearance Monday, Oct. 19. The police account doesn’t say whether either has a lawyer.

What police left out

The statement is short on mechanics. It doesn’t say how the Corvette was taken, who tipped off the owner or how, or whether he knew either person in the car. It doesn’t say where the key came from, who owns the rifle, or what part made it fire automatically. A drop-in auto sear in an AR and a “switch” on a Glock are different parts doing the same job, and the charge language covers both.

A second key for a C7

The 2014 model year was the C7’s first, and it starts with a keyless transmitter rather than a key in a column. According to GM’s 2014 Corvette owner’s manual, the passive theft-deterrent system arms when the car is switched off and only a correctly matched transmitter will start it. A mechanical key blade slides out of the fob, mostly so you can open the hatch if the battery dies.

Pages 2-6 and 2-7 of that manual explain how to add a transmitter. With one recognized fob present, the process is short. With none, the procedure starts at the key cylinder above the rear license plate: turn the key five times within 10 seconds, wait 10 minutes for the dash to prompt you, press the start button, and repeat the wait twice more. GM puts the whole job at about 30 minutes and notes the feature “is not available in Canada.”

The manual also says that after the third cycle, “all previously known transmitters will no longer work with the vehicle.” If the Memphis owner’s fobs stopped working after the theft, that would point to someone running a fresh programming session. If they still work, the second key was matched some other way. Police haven’t said either way.

Keys and fobs keep turning up at the center of these cases, from a dealer-installed alarm that worked as a universal remote for thieves to an Ohio dealer that lost a Dodge Charger in 37 minutes.

The charges since 2025

The weapon count carries more weight than it would have before July 2025. Tennessee’s HB 1093, signed by Gov. Bill Lee on May 21, 2025, and effective July 1 as Public Chapter 513, expanded the state’s definition of “machine gun” to include any part designed and intended solely to convert a firearm into one. It also raised knowingly possessing, making, transporting, repairing or selling a machine gun from a Class E to a Class C felony.

The theft count, for property worth $10,000 or more but less than $60,000, is also a Class C felony in Tennessee. That class carries three to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000. Police put the Corvette’s value at “over $24,000,” which keeps it inside that bracket.

Federal law already treated conversion parts as machine guns. When the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee announced 26 switch prosecutions in Memphis and Jackson in 2023, it said possessing one can bring up to 10 years in federal prison. Nothing in the police account says federal charges have been filed in this case.

The next filing in the Shelby County case is the one to read: it should say what part was in the rifle, and where a non-original key that could start a 2014 Corvette came from.

GM never offered the no-fob key procedure in Canada. Should it have been switched off for U.S. Corvettes too, or is a 30-minute, key-in-hand process a fair trade for owners who lose every fob?

Sources: Memphis Police Department statement as reported by WREG; Tennessee General Assembly record for HB 1093 / Public Chapter 513; GM 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Owner Manual; U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Tennessee.

About the Author

Shawn Henry

Administrator

Shawn Henry has spent years writing about cars, and it shows—not in a resume kind of way, but in how he talks about them. He's the type who'll notice the weird trim option nobody remembers and actually know why it mattered. At Backfire News, he covers pretty much the whole spectrum: off-road trucks and trail builds, performance cars, racing, and the collector market. He's comfortable getting into the technical weeds, but he never forgets that most people read about cars because cars are fun, not because they want a spec sheet. His beat runs from classic and collector vehicles to overlanding culture, modified performance builds, new automotive tech, and the industry news that actually affects what ends up in your driveway. Mostly, though, Shawn thinks the best car stories are about people—the builds they pour money into, the road trips, the communities that form around a shared obsession. That's the stuff he likes writing about, and it's what you'll find in his work here.

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