See also:Detectives search for driver in fatal New Year's Eve hit-and-run involving elderly woman For West Palm Beach resident Jonathan Thurston, he woke up to find a stray bullet had hit his car.

It was the Bulldogs who showed faith in him when others didn't, signing Thurston as a teenager when no other club wanted him because he was considered too small, too lean and a liability in defence.

Followed categories will be added to My News. In a post-career bombshell that will give every troubled teenager hope, Johnathan Thurston has ­revealed rugby league saved him from a life of crime.