It sounds crazy, but Todd Jones lucked out the Sunday afternoon his car caught fire on Bake Parkway.

If it hadn’t broken down right at that spot, about a mile from the 405 freeway in Irvine, he would have lost not only his means of transportation, but his livelihood and the only place he has to sleep. Jones is homeless but drives for Uber and Lyft.

If he didn’t get his disabled car moved, it would be impounded. Lucky for him that a police officer suggested having it towed to a business park across the street and not the one nearest to where his car died.

Lucky again that there was someone — small business owners in the complex at Bake and Rockfield Boulevard — to watch over Jones.

“They would have towed him out of there in an hour,” Elisabeth “Lis” Donaldson said of the alternative. She runs a medical billing firm where Jones was towed. “To me, it was kind of the grace of God.”

Uber driver Todd Jones tries to sort out his situation as his car sits behind a business in Irvine, where he had it towed after it caught fire on a recent the Sunday in September. In the meantime, he’s been getting help from business owner Lis Donaldson, who owns ACM Inc., a medical billing company. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, she and other business owners have let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water in Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Uber driver Todd Jones holds a small porcelain cross-shaped container holding some of his mother’s ashes. Just one of his possessions he keeps in the trunk of his Honda Accord. Jones was on his way to deliver food when his Honda caught fire. He had it towed behind businesses in an industrial park in Irvine. His car is not only his livelihood but it was his home. While waiting to sort things out with Uber and replace his car so he can work again, he’s been getting help from business owner Lis Donaldson, who owns ACM Inc., a medical billing company. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, she and other business owners have let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water. In Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Uber driver Todd Jones leans against his car, and temporary home, parked behind an office building in Irvine. Jones was on his way to deliver food when his old Honda caught fire. While waiting to sort things out with Uber and replace his car so he can work again, he’s been getting help from business owner Lis Donaldson, who owns ACM Inc., a medical billing company. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, she and other business owners have let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water. in Irvine, CA on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lis Donaldson, who owns ACM Inc., a medical billing company in Irvine, tells how she first ran into Uber driver Todd Jones in the parking lot behind her business. Jones had his car towed to a spot behind Donaldson’s business 10 days earlier when it caught fire and stopped running. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, Donaldson and other business owners have let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water in Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Uber driver Todd Jones recounts how his car caught fire when he was on his way to deliver food 10 days ago in Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Lis Donaldson, right, leans on the door of Uber driver Todd Jones’ disabled car in the parking area behind her medical billing business in Irvine. Jones was on his way to deliver food when his old Honda caught fire. He had it towed behind businesses in an industrial park in Irvine. While waiting to sort things out and replace his car so he can work again, he’s been getting help from business owner Donaldson. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, she and other business owners have let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water in Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Uber driver Todd Jones holds on to the window of his Honda as he relaxes, parked behind a building in Irvine. Jones’ car caught fire when he was driving for Uber about 10 days ago and he’s been staying in his car since then with the blessing and help of the business owners in the building in Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Lyft and Uber stickers on driver Todd Jones’ Honda Accord. Jones was on his way to deliver food when his old Honda caught fire. He had it towed behind businesses in an industrial park in Irvine. His car is not only his livelihood but it was his home. While waiting to sort things out and replace his car so he can work again, he’s been getting help from business owner Lis Donaldson, who owns ACM Inc., a medical billing company. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, she and other business owners have let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water. In Irvine on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Uber driver Todd Jones was on his way to deliver food when his old Honda caught fire. He had it towed behind businesses in an industrial park in Irvine. Homeless, he’s been getting help from business owners Lis Donaldson, left, and Lexie DeRouchey, second from right, and her assistant Melanie Killam. Instead of calling police to have his car towed away, they’ve let Jones sleep in his car and bring him food and water. in Irvine, CA on Wednesday, September 27, 2017. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Todd Jones, former Uber driver, sits inside the 2016 Hyundai he is leasing from Lyft to replace his old Honda that caught fire and blew up last month. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Todd Jones, the former Uber driver who’s Honda that caught fire and blew up last month in Lake Forest, in the rear view mirror of the 2016 Hyundai he is leasing from Lyft. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Todd Jones, former Uber driver, stands next to the 2016 Hyundai he is leasing from Lyft to replace his old Honda that caught fire and blew up last month. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Todd Jones, former Uber driver, with the 2016 Hyundai he is leasing from Lyft to replace his old Honda that caught fire and blew up last month. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Todd Jones, former Uber driver, and the 2016 Hyundai he is leasing from Lyft to replace his old Honda that caught fire and blew up last month. (Photo by Sam Gangwer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Donaldson and others responded with compassion, moved by the tough circumstances Jones struggles to overcome.

“He lifts me up and breaks my heart at the same time,” Donaldson said.

She and other tenants took Jones under their wings, letting him sleep in his car parked behind their building while he worked on getting into another vehicle. They supplied food and water. One of Donaldson’s staff extended a power cord onto the balcony for Jones to charge his phone. The owner of a printing business let him use their on-site shower.

Any one of them could have called police to have his car removed. And who would blame them? Here was this guy, imposing at over 6 feet tall and 260 pounds, who showed up out of nowhere with a wild story if ever there was one.

At first, Donaldson said, “We were all convinced it was b.s., because we’ve all been hit up in parking lots before. But there’s not been one inconsistency yet in his story.”

The sincerity of his polite country demeanor — embodied in an accent part Midwest, part Southern — and the tumult of his life verified by his aunt in Indiana persuaded the business owners to help Jones.

All he wanted to do was get back to driving again. But he got so much more.

Donaldson has done the most to help Jones — bringing him coffee and a copy of her hometown San Diego paper in the morning, making phone calls on his behalf, and advancing him some money that has already been paid back.

“This story really should be about Lis — the kindness of her,” Jones said. “She just went way above and beyond to help out a stranger. I don’t know what the heck would have happened without Lis.

“She’s just been an angel.”

‘Your car’s on fire!’

Jones, 46, scratches out a few hundred dollars a month driving for Uber and Lyft to supplement a $1,400 monthly disability check. He suffers from Crohn’s disease, a painful condition that inflames his bowels, but he works around that.

Someday, he hopes to rent a room somewhere. That’s about all he can afford.

Up until Sept. 17, he had been relying on his 2005 Honda Accord for sustenance and shelter, while making car payments of $223 a month.

Jones was on his way with an Uber Eats delivery of pho when the accelerator on his car stuck. It felt like he went from 0 to 100 mph. Lucky for him, the Sunday afternoon traffic was light. His foot on the brake didn’t slow his car down.

“I was just flying.”

Jones hurtled forward knowing a stoplight loomed ahead. He jolted to a stop in the bike lane after pulling his emergency brake. His heart was still racing as he sat in the car and heard passersby yelling,”Hey! Your car’s on fire! Your car’s on fire!”

Jones grabbed the big ice tea from his cup holder and attempted to douse the flames that ran along the undercarriage of his car. Police and a fire truck quickly took over, limiting the damage. But Jones was stuck.

One of the police officers said he couldn’t leave his car in the street. It would have to be impounded.

Beyond lacking the money to get the vehicle back from impound, his mother’s ashes were in the trunk, resting in a small porcelain urn shaped like a cross carefully tucked inside a duffel bag. He didn’t want to risk losing her remains. His mother had died suddenly nearly a year ago back in his home state of Indiana. He’s been carrying her ashes with him ever since his only brother mailed them out to him.

A lady cop suggested he have the car towed to the business park on the other side of Bake because the one closer to where his car sat would likely have it impounded right away.

“She really saved me,” Jones said of that officer, relating the tale on a hot afternoon more than a week after he became stranded.

Sweat rolled down his face as Jones leaned against the Honda, prefacing his answers to questions about his dilemma with a “Yes, ma’m” or a “No, ma’m” as Donaldson listened and nodded.

Donaldson had arrived at work early the Monday after his car broke down, reaching in her purse for the keys to unlock her business when Jones came walking out of the darkness from around the corner of the building. A petite 5 feet, 2 inches, Donaldson remembers what flashed through her mind as she stood there alone: “I thought, OK, I’m dead.”

Years ago, Donaldson had a violent encounter with a homeless man who hung out near where she worked at the time. She went to bring the man lunch one day and he attacked her.

“I’ve been gun shy ever since. But this guy,” she said of Jones, “has been so appreciative, it’s hard not to like him.”

With an “Excuse me, ma’m,” Jones explained his situation to Donaldson.

“He said ‘I’m just desperate that it’s not towed. Do you think it will be OK back there?’ ”

From middle class to homeless

Donaldson took a leap of faith and let Jones stay in the parking lot, bringing him some water later and giving him her business card in case somebody else called the police. Her mobile car wash guy verified the car fire — he had been there when the fire truck arrived.

Jones spent day and night in his car, making phone calls and filling in the mandala designs in an adult coloring book titled “Color Yourself Calm” that he kept for anxious rideshare passengers.

After a few days, Donaldson got a call from Jones’ 72-year-old aunt in Columbus, Ind.

Charlotte Coy contacted Donaldson when she couldn’t reach her nephew on his cellphone. He had left a message about where he had broken down; she wanted to send him $400, money Jones needed for his plan to rent a car from Lyft and get back to driving until he sorted out what to do with the Honda.

His situation was further complicated because his wallet — with his license and Social Security card inside — had been stolen out of his car in late August. With those documents, the thieves had intercepted his disability check for the month of September, Jones said.

Donaldson became his touchstone: Coy googled her business in search of Jones.

“I was really worried about him, worried about his safety,” Coy said during a long-distance phone interview. “He’s never been through this kind of stress before, being homeless.”

Jones worked for years as a correctional officer and administrator in privately run prisons in Indiana, Tennessee and Georgia. He had been married and living a nice middle class life — no drinking, no drugs, no drama — until Crohn’s disease sent him tumbling.

Diagnosed in 2004, he was in and out of hospitals, unable to keep his job and suffering from both physical pain and the emotional toll of watching his wife work long hours while he had to stay home, Coy said. His condition eventually led to their separation when Jones left to return to Indiana. Coy described her nephew as a “good kid” that she was close to in his youth.

But he’s had personal problems beyond health issues the past few years that include getting picked up last year in an undercover prostitution sting. That arrest deeply embarrasses a man who keeps the well-worn Bible a cousin gave him in his car, to read during downtime.

After his return to Indiana, Jones said he started drinking. He ended up in Orange County after an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center in San Clemente flew him out for treatment in late 2015. He’s been sober ever since, he said.

He left the sober living home after hearing of his mother’s death last October. Jones decided to drive for Uber to help cope with the loss.

“I just needed to keep moving.”

He spent nights in his car, then rented a room in Cathedral City for a brief time. Back sleeping in his car, Jones would get an occasional motel room to shower. The trouble with the Honda disrupted that tenuous routine.

Coy recalled his anguish about having to call her: “He said ‘I didn’t know what to do.’ He said it’s rough, but he’d be OK. He said ‘Charlotte, I just don’t have anybody else.’ I said that’s fine, Todd. Then he was crying and all.”

Coy felt he was in good hands with Donaldson, who told her she would give Jones the $400 and wait for Coy to reimburse her.

“I thought he’s going to be OK,” said Coy, who sent the money to Donaldson. “This lady is going to check on him and he’s going to be safe. I just hope that everything works out for him.”

‘It could be us tomorrow’



Donaldson was joined in helping Jones by Lexie DeRouchey, owner of Propvest Property Management, and her assistant, Melanie Killam, who bought him an ice chest stocked with food and beverages. Killam researched and printed out a list of rooms for rent on Craigslist.

DeRouchey has encountered homelessness in both her personal and business life — she was known as “The Pancake Lady” during the eight years she helped her church group serve breakfast to homeless people in Laguna Beach. More recently, she’s been representing the interests of property owners concerned about the tent encampments near Angel Stadium in Anaheim.

DeRouchey knows well the tensions between property owners — homeowners and businesses — and the homeless population that has increased dramatically the past few years along the Santa Ana River Trail. Still, her heart goes out to people with upended lives.

“It’s a delicate situation to have to overcome,” DeRouchey said. “It could be us tomorrow. You just never know.”

Still, when she first spotted Jones in his car a few hundred feet from the back door of her office, DeRouchey was wary. She shouted at him from across the lot to stay in his car as he explained his situation, later confirmed by Donaldson.

Here is someone trying to help himself, DeRouchey thought: “When it’s right at your building, you can’t ignore it. That wouldn’t be humane. That wouldn’t be right.”

Jones said his biggest fear is ending up in one of those tents at the river bed. But his luck since encountering Donaldson has held.

With the money from his aunt, Jones got another car the last weekend in September through a rideshare rental program Lyft runs with Hertz Rental Car. He’s driving a 2016 Hyundai now and has ferried passengers all over Southern California. He earned enough over his first weekend — $421 for 40 hours of driving — to cover the weekly car rental fee and other expenses. He treated himself to one night in a motel.

He still hopes to find an affordable place to stay once he gets this month’s disability check and pays back his aunt.

Beyond the money he’s earning, Jones said he’s gained insight that puts his own circumstances in perspective.

“I’m out here just driving my butt off. It’s good being out of that parking lot and picking up passengers and hearing different stories. It’s amazing hearing what people are going through, the ups and downs of their lives.

“People are going to Disneyland and people are going to funerals.”

And some are sleeping in their cars.