A rancher in Montrose County, Colorado has two totaled trucks after a thief intentionally trashed both by ramming the stolen truck into the rancher’s daughter’s pickup. It’s a sad example of how selfish and reckless car thieves act, making it apparent they don’t care what damage they do to the lives of their victims.
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The first truck was originally stolen as the owner was around the back of a local feed store. We don’t know if the thief hacked the ignition or if the keys were left inside, but when the owner came back to the parking lot his work vehicle was gone.
As the guy told Montrose Press in its coverage of this story, with thin profit margins as a rancher he can’t afford to lose one truck. That’s why when came in of his pickup being spotted in the area, his daughter drove over there in her truck to see if she could spot it.
Sure enough she did and began following the suspect. We’ve covered many cases of fed-up owners getting their own stolen cars back successfully, but we’ve also covered and seen many cases where such attempts went sideways in a hurry. Most people have no idea how to follow a thief without being spotted and that’s exactly what happened in this situation.
Once the thief spotted the daughter in her truck he tried getting away, but eventually she cornered him on a private driveway. That’s when he turned around and rammed into her truck head-on. That’s the danger of following a criminal and cornering them, because when desperate they can lash out violently.
Eventually, police were able to chase this suspect down, but they were in the next county by the time they got him. And the rancher says his and his daughter’s trucks are totaled. Since they depend on both vehicles for their livelihood that puts the family in a really tight spot.
We’re not blaming the rancher’s daughter for this fiasco because ultimately this is the product of someone who took another person’s property. But we are warning readers about tracking down and taking back their own stolen car. It’s risky and most people just aren’t prepared to deal with the realities of such a move.
Image via Fernado Lucas
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