A Wall Street Journal reporter who covers the Justice Department was at home in his underwear when he checked his BlackBerry and saw an announcement at 1:09 a.m. The attorney general, he learned, was holding a press conference in 20 minutes.

The reporter, Evan Perez, jumped into torn jeans and a polo shirt, hopped into his car and raced to the Justice Department, according to stories in Main Justice and the Washington Post column Washington Sketch. Perez was one of only two reporters who made the press conference, and the only print journalist there, the stories say. The press conference was broadcast live on cable stations using a pool camera feed.

Attorney General Eric Holder used the press conference to announce the arrest of Faisal Shahzad in the failed Times Square bombing. Holder, the Post wrote, “is one of those rare birds that crow before the sun rises.”

Perez has been working the story ever since. He contributed to a Wall Street Journal story (sub. req.) today reporting on the 53 hours it took investigators to find and arrest Shahzad. Investigators caught a break, the New York Times reports, because the vehicle identification number in the Nissan Pathfinder holding bomb-making materials had been stripped from the dashboard, but not from the car’s engine parts and frame.

The number led police to a man who sold the vehicle a few weeks ago for $1,300. He provided a cell phone number of the buyer, who had refused a bill of sale. The prepaid cell phone was unregistered, but calls on the phone were made to a number associated with Shahzad, according to the criminal complaint.

According to the Times, “At virtually every turn, the evasive steps Mr. Shahzad took left digital footprints, a trail that ultimately led to his seat on an Emirates flight that was bound for Dubai, the authorities say.”