A brazen thief took North Carolina cops on a wild, a few-hour automobile chase that appeared like a actual-existence model of the movie activity “Grand Theft Vehicle,” footage reveals.
Tyler Harding, 26, stole four cars and trucks and crashed twice during the lengthy daylight chase on Wednesday that begun in Charlotte as sped onto sidewalks, dangerously weaved by way of site visitors and blew by way of numerous cease lights, according to law enforcement and videos.
At one point, a courageous but misguided vigilante in a pickup rams Harding’s stolen truck from guiding – but only manages to disable his possess motor vehicle, footage by WSOC-Tv set.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Law enforcement Section is now going through questions over why it took so prolonged to cease Harding and why there have been no unexpected emergency alerts sent to inhabitants, but law enforcement Main Johnny Jennings stated officers didn’t go after at to start with mainly because it wasn’t a “crime harmful to life.”
“It’s strange for a car or truck to continue to push erratically at the time we pull away from that car or truck,” Jennings informed reporters at a news meeting this 7 days.
“But in this circumstance, as you saw, this unique ongoing to push erratically, and set the life of our citizens in threat.”
A police helicopter under no circumstances lost sight of the suspect or stolen motor vehicles and none of the thefts was a auto jacking but included the thief hopping into vacant, functioning cars, Jennings added.
The chase started 10 a.m. Wednesday when law enforcement responded to a breaking and entering contact, where a resident claimed she identified her Jeep experienced been stolen, according to police. They employed a GPS monitoring gadget to track down the Jeep at a McDonald’s travel-via in Charlotte, but Harding fled when approached by officers, in accordance to a information release.
Harding was noticed ditching the stolen Jeep and hopping into a stolen white pickup truck with his sister, 28-12 months-old Christa Harding, cops stated. They crossed above into South Carolina but arrived back after a regional sheriff’s deputy experimented with to pull them around, the launch stated.
Again in Charlotte, they went into a Walmart parking good deal and switched autos once more, cops and online video present. A shirtless Harding pops out of the truck with a broad-brimmed hat and steals a Toyota Corolla that experienced been left operating in the ton, cops said.
He zoomed off and left driving his sister, who was booked for possession of a stolen vehicle, according to authorities.
But Harding’s botched getaway had just started. He barreled head-on into vehicle that was stopped at a light on Johnson Street and ditched the Toyota. He briefly tries to pull the driver of the ruined vehicle out but scurries and hops into a black Infinity who driver hopped out to consider to see if any person was wounded in the crash, WSOC online video and stories reported.
It was only then that law enforcement made a decision to interact for the reason that they believed a person may possibly have been in the car in a hostage circumstance, the main afterwards stated. But in advance of the wild chase finished, a gray pickup truck can take the regulation into his own arms and rams the Infinity from powering.
The would-be vigilante’s motor vehicle comes to a end immediately after getting disabled and the driver was afterwards ticketed for not obtaining a license, cops mentioned.
Harding is witnessed blowing by means of a pink light and t-boning one more car or truck at the end of the crash, about 1:30 p.m. He jumps from the vehicle with his arms raised before cops swarm him.
He experienced prior costs of felony evading arrest in Texas, WSOC reported.
He is now going through a slew of costs together with 3 counts of car larceny and cops might file more charges. At his initially court docket appearance Friday his $115,000 bond was bumped up to $800,000, in accordance to WSOC.