Image via Police Pursuits/YouTube
When a man steals a dump truck from his ex-employer, seemingly out of a blind attempt to get even, law enforcement answers the call. Since the theft takes place in Lonoke County, Arkansas the sheriff’s officer responds as does Arkansas State Police. But this isn’t your usual vehicle pursuit since the guy is behind the wheel of almost a literal tank, making stopping it difficult.
Watch a Brazilian couple beat up a pair of carjackers.
After all, troopers can’t turn to one of their most trusted methods of stopping a pursuit, performing a PIT maneuver on the fleeing car. Both deputies and troopers pour into the area once the seriousness of the situation is established, but it’s questionable what they can do to bring the chase to a safe conclusion.
For a while, all law enforcement can do is trail behind, lights and sirens going while hoping the suspect doesn’t tear through some innocent person’s car.
However, they start plotting and decide to try spike strips on the dump truck. That doesn’t seem to really slow the suspect down at all, but it admittedly was worth a try.
Next up a trooper tries setting up a roadblock with his cruiser. Fortunately, the trooper knows it might not work at all, so he doesn’t stay in the vehicle but instead gets far away. Sure enough, the dump truck plows right through, as if it hit a toy car.
That’s when an ASP captain tells all units in the area, “take him out.” It’s time for the gloves to come off since it’s clear the suspect will harm troopers and deputies if given the chance. That’s when the trooper in our camera car calls out over the radio that once he can, he’ll shoot the dump truck’s engine using his shotgun.
And he does just that at least three times. Then another deputy spikes the tires again, which still doesn’t seem to work. That’s when a trooper fires his AR-15 at one of the front tires. It’s actually quite difficult to blow out a tire with a gun, so the fact he succeeds is impressive.
With the dump truck disabled, troopers tase the thief and arrest him, bringing the reign of terror to an end. And now we know just how difficult it is to take down a dump truck.
Image via Police Pursuits/YouTube
