Thursday, March 28, 2024
  • Procore - Leaderboard - Jan 2022
  • IAPMO R&T Lab - Leaderboard
  • CWRE 2024 - Leaderboard
  • Keith Walking Floor - Leaderboard - Sept 2021
  • Premier Leaderboard - updated Nov 19
  • Revizto - Leaderboard - March and April
  • Dentec - Leaderboard - 2023 - Updated
July 21, 2018

Heavy equipment thief in Calgary leads construction workers on low-speed chase

 

Police are warning Calgarians against taking the law into their own hands after two contractors chased down a thief trying to make off with a piece of heavy equipment.

Acting Sgt. Nigel Nelson says a front end loader was reported stolen from a worksite in the area of 61st Street and 100th Avenue S.E. on Monday.

So imagine the surprise of two workers from that construction site when they saw the very same loader driving down the road at 26th Street and 50th Avenue S.E. just two days later.

Nelson says the workers spotted the would-be thief making a low-speed getaway around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday and called police to say they’d located the stolen property.

Click here to sign-up and receive the Weekly Round Up in your inbox every Saturday

The contractors gave chase to the slow-moving machine. Nelson said the 49-year-old suspect must have realized he was being followed and tried to ditch his pursuers by driving into an empty field near the 5800 block of 68th Avenue S.E.

“He dumped (the loader) and he tried to get away on foot,” Nelson said. “But what he didn’t realize was these (contractors) had sort of carried on a bit further and were out the other end of the field, so you could say they were waiting for him.”

Nelson said some construction workers from a nearby job site saw what was going on and came to assist the contractors. Nelson said the suspect “basically laid down and gave himself up” when he saw he was outnumbered.

The entire chase lasted about 10 minutes and Nelson said police were on scene to take the male suspect into custody shortly after the man gave himself up.

Keep reading in the Calgary Sun