Dad Spots His Stolen Truck From Inside Family's Helicopter And Films Himself Chasing It Down

Apr 30, 2020 by apost team

In what played out like a scene from an action movie, Emmanuel Toner of New Brunswick, Canada used his family’s private helicopter to locate his stolen truck this April shortly after the truck’s disappearance at a local Ultramar gas station. With Toner’s assistance, police had the suspect in custody roughly two hours after committing the crime.

The theft occurred after Toner left his 2017 Ram pickup running in a gas station parking lot, according to CBC. The news outlet reports that Toner only left the car for 30 seconds to get a receipt after refueling the vehicle when someone suddenly got in and drove off. While Toner had his set of car keys in his pocket, the auto thief was able to drive away since the car featured keyless push-to-ignition technology.

At the gas station worker’s suggestion, the short search for Toner’s truck began with a post to Facebook, which quickly got the community to comment sightings of the white pickup after the photo had spread across social media. And that got Toner’s father Teddy thinking. At Teddy’s suggestion, Emmanuel, Teddy and Toner’s brother and law got into their private helicopter and were in the air within 45 minutes of the theft in order to look for the stolen vehicle themselves, according to CBC. Meanwhile, Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) had already sent ground units out to search for the truck across the central New Brunswick area. Within less than two hours, Emmanuel spotted the suspect speeding on the highway below, and so the Toner family started to update the police on the car’s location. 

apost.com

"I'm pretty sure at that point he knew we were following him with the helicopter," Toner told the news outlet. "You can run, but you can't hide from the chopper."

Along with Toner’s help from above, the police were able to deploy a spike strip on the highway that would pop the cars tires. "We thought he was going to slow it down, but he actually stepped on it. You could see the smoke going out of the exhaust, so he was giving her everything it's got," Toner told CBC in April.

With RCMP in tow and smoke appearing around the stolen truck’s tires, police were able to chase the suspect when he got out of the car and ran into the nearby trees. With the community and Toner’s quick thinking and help, police made the arrest just around two hours after the perpetrator drove off with Toner’s car. While Toner’s story has a positive ending, the New Brunswick resident had some advice and a warning for people who leave their cars unattended when they are in a rush to pay for gas.

"The material is replaceable, it's only a truck,” Toner told CBC. “You can buy another one. It's insured. But kids or even dogs aren't replaceable so it's something to think about."

Has someone ever stolen something from you? And if so, did you get it back? Let us know and pass this incredible story on to family and friends.