If you’re driving a car hauler, it’s your sacred duty to deliver those vehicles to their destination, safe and intact. It’s all in the Hauler’s Creed, which drivers recite by heart before every delivery. However, it appears one young Texan didn’t get the memo.
As reported by WDSU, a man was arrested by police on Tuesday after a high-speed chase ensued just before 3:00 PM in Kenner, Louisiana. The chase came to an end after the driver crashed into a truck on I-10 eastbound.
Police allege that the man had been working as a hotshot driver, delivering vehicles by trailer. Authorities claim that he had unloaded a blue Dodge Charger from his trailer in Baton Rouge, before driving the vehicle to Kenner where the chase ensued.
As seen in dashcam footage from a police cruiser involved in the chase, the Charger was spotted after flying through a red light on Williams Boulevard. Allegedly, the driver refused to pull over when tailed by an officer with lights and siren, and thus the pursuit began. The chase saw the Charger driver fleeing through gas stations and mall car parks, with at least five police cruisers seen in pursuit.
Video shared by WDSU and other outlets doesn’t show the chase in full. Police have stated that chase came to an end when the driver hit a truck on I-10 eastbound amidst “heavy congestion.” Thankfully, no injuries were reported. While the truck was reported as undamaged, police noted that the Charger had “significant damage” to the front end. If that was your blue Charger skating around Louisiana, you have our sympathies.
In Kenner Police Department’s statement above, titled “18-Year Old Arrested After Leading Officers On Pursuit; Booked On Several Charges,” the PD breaks down the situation in more detail. “Yesterday, Nov.12, at approximately 2:38 p.m., a Kenner Police Officer working in the traffic division observed a blue Dodge Charger traveling at a high rate of speed go through a red light in the 4300 block of Williams Blvd,” the statement begins. After mentioning that the vehicle didn’t stop after an officer turned on the red-and-blues, the statement says “Additional officers flooded the area and assisted in the pursuit. The vehicle ended up getting on the I-10 eastbound at Power Blvd. and due to heavy congestion, crashed into the rear of a truck.”
The driver was arrested in the aftermath and charged with numerous traffic and drug offenses. Police have alleged that illicit substances were found in the vehicle, while the driver is also under investigation on an auto theft charge.
Ultimately, a situation like this is kind of a nightmare if you’re a car owner. This is why we always recommend a high-quality transporter booked through a trusted broker like our partner Nexus Auto Transport. At the very least you should probably be able to get your car hauled by a hotshot driver without it ending up plastered on the local news with lights and sirens.
Image credits: Kenner Police Department
Thanks to Micheline Maynard for the tip!
I can only wonder if the new Charger is going to have this kind of voracious following too.
It being a charger, i would assume it was probably already stolen before he re-stole it.
Kowalski?
I’d call the track “mildly moist”.
I’m pretty sure he was just trying to drive the car to San Francisco by Monday. Wonder if he might be former cop.
Learned the hard way myself how corrupt the transport industry is. Thankfully I was having a rusty, non-functional BRAT transported so theft was out of the question, but everybody take the last line of this article seriously. The first offer you get on Shiply is ALWAYS BAD. If you’re really cheap and want to be cheap on shipping then U-Haul is the only way to go if you don’t have your own truck and trailer.
Like any of you wouldn’t have done the same if you had the keys to a blue Dodge Charger sitting in your pocket. That’s a bucket list ride for any red-blooded car enthusiast.
Lol, no, some slow ass Charger isn’t going to tempt me into a prison sentence.
Even if was a fast as hell Hellcat wide body, I would still never steal a car, but he was 18, and doing a shitty job for a living. I at least understand the temptation, but I also believe he will never get out of the hole he has dug, so hope it was worth it.
Nope.
But did it have a Hemi??
My question too, in seriousness – it looks fairly run-of-the-mill Charger, not some rare one like a Hellcat or whatever. I guess the illicit substances part figures into the decisionmaking here, but if you’re going to do something like this, at least try to make the potential payoff worth the risk.
“Thankfully no injuries”? No, not thankfully – the thief should have paid for his stupidity with PAIN, or better yet taken himself out of the gene pool and saved the taxpayers a heap of money, as well as the possible prison sentence. This is a whole other level of theft beyond some random methhead stealing your car. Somebody entrusted this asshole with the car he loved and paid hard-earned money for. And will inevitably get at least a little bit screwed by the insurance companies (I can see the fight over this from three states away), so unlikely to come out whole.
I prefer a little bit of Old School Biblical vengeance in these cases. Fuck around and find out.
Well he’s probably moved himself out of the paid labor pool and into the 13th amendment slave labor pool:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/us/louisiana-rejects-slavery-measure-reaj/index.html
Maybe permanently since he’s unlikely to find a decent job with this on his record. That’s its own kind of Old School Biblical vengeance, fuck around and find out.
And who knows how many times he slipped and fell onto his face on his way into the back of the cruiser.
What is the flowing body of water in southern Ukraine called?
Is this a test?
Good! Though I agree the language there was as terrible as legal language often is. Inmates should be used for useful purposes, not allowed to sit around watching TV and lifting weights all day enjoying “three hots and a cot” and getting some new tats. Which is what my dipshit kid brother did when he was in the pokey several times for being a moron. Put them to work, even if it’s just moving piles of sand from one side of the yard to the other all day.
Sadly even in LA he probably won’t get enough time to think about the error of his ways, nor will it be a terrible enough experience to keep him from going back. I think prison should be so terrible you would rather gnaw your own arm off than go back.
While I agree inmates should ideally earn their keep I think they should be paid fairly for that work, even if it’s just he state’s minimum wage for minimum wage work. We WANT people to see the benefits of honest work don’t we?
Now whether they also see that jailhouse paycheck evaporate to cover the fair(!) costs of their incarceration is another matter. They should also see the fiscal drawbacks of “fuck around and find out”.
I think prison should be so terrible you would rather gnaw your own arm off than go back.
Well that’s the stick. There should be a carrot too. I expect a lot of these folks were never taught the basics of employment but were thrown into the pool and expected to figure it out on their own. Unfortunately stories like this one are the result of such hands off training (maybe parenting too). Prison is an intervention, may as well put it to use to give better skills than to become a better criminal.
I mean, if you don’t like the wages, don’t come back.
I’m curious where the concept of “rehabilitation” fits in with that for you? Part of the goal should be to give people skills and appropriate intervention so that they can reintegrate into society upon release. Make it a complete nightmare and just have them haul sand? Might be nice from a “societal vengeance” point of view… but it wont help recidivism. Which ultimately… doesn’t help the victims either.
In the US, “rehabilitation” is a failed concept in the vast majority of cases. So since we can’t seem to make that work, here is the alternative.
Ultimately, I am ok with sort of a “three strikes” regime. First time you screw up (assuming property crimes, nobody hurt, etc), OK, you were dumb, slap on wrist. Fine, probation, counselling, etc, Second time, time in a box to think about the error of your ways, but not too terrible. Third time – big boy prison with HARD time. Not necessarily for a LONG time, but as I said, make it an experience only a complete idiot would ever want to repeat. Beyond that, or you hurt somebody intentionally – drop you on an island in the middle of the ocean and sink the boat. You have cashed in your membership in civilized society at this point.
My dipshit brother did manage to see the error of his ways after nine months in county lockup (strike two after too many first strikes) and while looking down the barrel of stage three (Federal “PYITA” Prison)if he continued on his path and got “scared straight”, but I am under no illusions that any “rehabilitation” had anything to do with it. More that his roommate got 25yrs at Club Fed for what they were doing together, but she didn’t roll over on him when the Feds raided their place when he wasn’t home, and they couldn’t pin anything on him directly.
The Autopian is probably not the best forum for such a discussion… but here we are.
Just because our prison system is broken and we do a poor job of rehabilitation… isn’t a great reason to permanently tear up someone’s civilization card.
From world_prison_population_list_13th_edition.pdf :
The countries with the highest prison population rate – that is, the number of prisoners per 100,000 of the national population – are the United States (629 per 100,000), followed by Rwanda (580), Turkmenistan (576), El Salvador (564), Cuba (510), Palau (478)… Russia (328)
Based on the company we keep…maybe we are doing it wrong. Or maybe we are just assholes. I suspect both.
The US has a bad combination of worshipping “rugged individualism”, poor education, a huge wealth gap, rampant racism, idiotic drug laws (but IMHO, the law is the law), and a general lack of respect for law and order (see who we just elected President again for an EXCELLENT example of that). That is a BAD combination for what is supposed to be a civil society,and is well reflected in our prison population. Which would be a lot lower if they were so awful people would do anything to NOT go back to prison. Though I suppose they do -by far the main reason people run and get in high speed pursuits is warrants. Another badly broken aspect of the legal system – if you have arrest warrants, why are you out there driving around to start with?
I agree we are well afield of anything automotive, so this is it for me.
if he ends up in Angola he will regret this the rest of his life.
As often than not, it’s innocent bystanders that get injured in these chases. Your desire for vengeance in blood shows a worrying lack of concern for, just as an example, the driver of the truck that got hit. Not to mention dog knows how many near misses happened in the gas stations and parking lots also mentioned in the story. THAT’S why it’s “thankfully no injuries”.
I think the desire for harm did not include the innocent bystanders.
No, but it is weird to find the phrase “Thankfully, no injuries were reported” so enraging that you need to write 119 words about it.
No… surely they didn’t actually count… (copy/paste into word) welp yeah, they did. They actually counted the number of words in the post.
That is next level scorn right there.
If it makes anyone feel better the lack of injuries to the suspect kept him out of the hospital where his stay would be paid for by taxpayers.
And if they would just put a bullet in these people’s heads and get them out of our society like I would prefer as well then there would be even less risk in the future to innocent bystanders. I’m going to guess that’s what Kevin meant and not your odd interpretation that he wishes innocent bystanders got injured in the chase.
Very much agreed. Putting this guy in prison is just going to make him a better criminal next time, and there is usually a next time.
There’s something to be said for the idea. If we did this to rich people, it would preclude their seeking and achieving high office. For example, those who stiff their workers, adulterates their product, or work when on a student visa (not just automobile-related offences). China sometimes takes that approach.
Did I REALLY need it to be any more clear that I was talking about the *thief*? Seriously? Reading comprehension was not your forte in school, was it?
I just don’t get upset by the phrase “Thankfully, no injuries were reported” you weirdo.
And yet you were triggered by what I *didn’t* say, Special Snowflake.
Yes I agree, stolen property should be destroyed in the process of recovering it because it will teach the criminal a lesson.
Not even remotely the point here.
This is just a Charger in its natural environment
That’s why I only hire transporters for my non-running piles of crap. Hard to be involved in a police chase in a car that won’t move.
ROFL! The only cars I have ever had transported were a pretty nice 1979 Peugeot 504 diesel and a pretty decrepit but “running” 1962 Triumph Herald. Either of which the cops could have caught on a bicycle in a “high speed chase”.
My last two were a jeep xj after the fuel pump died on the way to get new tires, and a ’53 Chevy which was had a blown transmission.
When they say “Mopar or no car” I’m not sure this is exactly what people meant, but it does fit.
Vanishin Pointe
More like Vanishing (license) Points.
Plus vanishing freedom and vanishing wallet.
Yes, a few parallels to Vanishing Point, for anyone who hasn’t seen it. Dodge Challenger, driver didn’t quite get the car delivered…
I just tried to spell it as for the Louisianan pronunciation