Gwinnet County police in Georgia found themselves in a unique low-speed chase March 23, after they commissioned a wheel loader operator to help capture a man who had stolen a wheel loader.
The pursuing loader operator not only managed to catch up to the alleged thief, but he flipped the loader over so police could arrest the man.
The whole crazy incident was caught on the officer’s dash cam. The video is posted at the end of this story.
Here’s how it all unfolded, starting at 11 a.m. at a waste management business on Corley Road in Norcross, according to police and the video:
When the officer arrived, Eddie Sanchez was driving around the property on a 30-ton Volvo L180H wheel loader with a large bucket on the front. Sanchez, 38, of Delaware had been fired in September from the business and had shown up once several days before to hop in a wheel loader and drive it around, but he didn't drive it off the property on that occasion.
The officer spoke to two employees at the site March 23.
“Any idea what he’s doing?” the officer asked.
“We have no idea,” one said.
Soon the loader appears in the video, and the officer shouts, “Stop! Stop!”
The loader keeps going past and heads out onto a main road into traffic.
“I have no way of stopping this vehicle,” the officer says as he heads to his squad car.
From the dash cam video, you can see the loader weave around, make a U-turn, and at one point, it’s heading straight for the squad car.
The officer returns to the waste management business. He asks an employee about the loader and how fast it goes.
“They can get up to probably about 30,” the employee says.
The officer then says, “Grab that! Quick, quick, quick!”
Back to the dash cam, sirens blaring, the employee in another Volvo wheel loader soon speeds past and catches up to the fleeing loader. A garbage truck from the business, along with officers from the Norcross Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol, join the chase. Police provide an escort for the garbage truck and pursuing loader.
Eventually, the pursuing loader bumps the fleeing loader and uses the blade to push the loader to the side of Singleton Road, about 5 miles from where the chase began. The garbage truck is blocking the road to prevent the fleeing loader from leaving.
“This is unbelievable,” the officer says.
Other officers are yelling, “Flip it! Flip it!”
Soon the pursuing operator topples the loader on its side. Officers rush in and pull the man out. Face-down on the ground, he is cuffed with his hands behind his back.
Sanchez was evaluated at a local hospital and then booked into the Gwinnet County Jail on charges of trespassing, theft, fleeing arrest, reckless driving, property damage and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, according to Gwinnet County Police.
No one was injured in the pursuit, police say.
To watch the chase, check out the Gwinnet County Police video below, which was released on Facebook:
