Nolensville police chase stolen U-Haul that almost hit officer
NOLENSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Multiple law enforcement agencies are looking for a U-Haul van that was stolen from Mt. Juliet and then led officers on a chase in Nolensville.
According to a police report, the manager of the U-Haul in the 14500 block of Lebanon Road in Mt. Juliet said a man rented a van on Feb. 2.
That rental was for 24 hours, but authorities said the man kept extending the rental another 24 hours all the way to Feb. 18. All payments and communications stopped after that day.
On Wednesday, March 20, the Mt. Juliet Police Department took a report, which said the vehicle was seen in the parking lot of a bowling alley in Hermitage. The person who identified the U-Haul was another dealer who called the original location. That witness said two people were sleeping in the van at the time, but when law enforcement went to the parking lot, the vehicle was gone.
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Then, around 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 21, that stolen vehicle showed up in Nolensville, driving south from Nashville past a license plate recognition (LPR) camera.
It wasn’t long before two cars from the Nolensville Police Department got behind the U-Haul, trying to pull it over.
That’s when the driver reportedly pulled into a subdivision, went around a roundabout, and came back at one of the pursuing officers who had stepped out of the car and momentarily drawn his weapon. The van swerved close to the officer’s open car door and then continued out of the subdivision at a high rate of speed, followed by both officers.
Dash camera footage shows the U-Haul accelerating and passing on blind curves into oncoming traffic. That’s when Nolensville police terminated the chase.
In the video, you can hear someone say over the radio, “Go ahead and cancel. Advise Rutherford and Smyrna.”
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“This, I think, highlights a danger to police officers on the streets, where we’re stopping what we know is a stolen vehicle, but we don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a very dynamic situation,” Nolensville Assistant Police Chief Michael Terns said.
At this time, the driver’s motives are still unknown, but authorities told News 2 that thieves are known to use stolen U-Hauls to commit other crimes.
“In my experience as a police officer, people use stolen vehicles for other crimes such as burglary, vehicle burglary, thefts, and the U-Haul vehicle, specifically, most people wouldn’t take a second look at the U-Haul vehicle, so you could drive through a neighborhood and people thought, ‘Someone’s just moving in our neighborhood,'” Terns explained.
The stolen U-Haul was last seen driving toward Rutherford County. If you have any information about this vehicle, you are asked to call the Nolensville Police Department at 615-776-3640.
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