Police arrest man after chase in stolen construction vehicle in Cabarrus County
Police officers near Charlotte arrested a man Monday who led them on a slow-speed chase for over a half-hour while driving a stolen construction vehicle on the I-485 loop near Pineville.
Pineville Police received a report Monday morning that the vehicle was stolen from Lancaster, S.C. The man driving it tried to evade officers, never going more than about 35 mph, before he drove the vehicle onto railroad tracks and into the woods.
The man drove the vehicle about a mile into the woods and then fled on foot. Officers searched the area with drones and dogs, said Capt. Corey Copley of the Pineville Police Department.
They arrested Brett James Catoe on Monday afternoon. He was found by the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office K9 unit, sitting on the front porch of a home in Cabarrus County.
He was arrested without incident and faces pending charges of felony fleeing to elude, felony possession of a stolen vehicle, and a misdemeanor charge of “resisting, obstructing, and delaying.”
Copley said there is limited information about how or why the vehicle was stolen.
Spike strips that are used to stop fleeing vehicles during police chases would have been too small to stop such a large vehicle, Copley said. Neither the Pineville Police Department nor some neighboring police departments had the kinds of industrial-sized spike strips that could have slowed the vehicle down.
“It’s pretty unusual,” Copley said.
No one was injured in the chase.
This story was originally published February 21, 2022 at 11:38 AM.
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