'Wild ride' ends in North End, as stolen semi screeches to a crashing halt
Police say it was lucky nobody was hurt in destructive rampage; 2 suspects arrested
A stolen semi left a trail of destruction in Winnipeg Friday morning, speeding through city streets before plowing into a steel fence in front of a North End doughnut shop.
The carnage ended just before 11 a.m. at the intersection of Salter Street and Selkirk Avenue, when the unattached truck came to a stop in front of Robin's Donuts.
"It was a pretty wild ride," said Winnipeg police Const. Rob Carver. "A significant amount of vehicles were damaged [but] we don't have any reports of injuries, which is amazing."
Carver said the truck was reported stolen at 10:30 a.m. from the area around Inkster Boulevard and King Edward Street. He said the semi's owner called police while following the truck in another vehicle, travelling westbound on Inkster.
Police made contact with the vehicle a short time later, but Carver said the pursuers decided to back off when they saw how erratically it was being driven.
"It's going fairly fast and we don't want to get into a pursuit of a semi truck, so we let it leave the city and notified RCMP," he said.
These are very powerful vehicles and it's not like we can set up a road block or a spike belt easily."
The driver took the stolen truck out of the city then came back in along Main Street, where it hit multiple vehicles before crashing into an iron fence at Selkirk Avenue and Salter Street in the North End, police said.
Most of the vehicles were parked and unoccupied, said Carver.
The intersection of Selkirk and Salter was blocked entirely while police also had part of southbound Main, starting at Pritchard Avenue, closed off, too.
Carver said two adult males were arrested after the crash. Charges have not yet been laid.
Crash and coffee
"We heard the crash, and saw the truck coming, and then boom, right into the fence," said George Pirrie, who's been coming to the Robin's Donuts for nearly three decades.
"If it wasn't for the steel fence, he would have hit the building. I guarantee it, [the way] it was moving,"
He said from what he saw, the truck hit a number of cars before eventually coming to a stop.
Pirrie said when the truck did come to a full stop, he saw two young men get out of the truck's cab and take off.
"That guy ran through the parking lot, to the back alley. Police chased the guy down the street to the school, and cornered him off," said
"I think they got him, they got both guys."
Kathy Hildebrand moved to the area two years ago, and lives right above the MoneyMart, where she heard the crash happen.
"I heard a big bang and a commotion, and looked out the window and that's when I [saw] the semi had hit the fence at Robin's."
In her time living in the area, Hildebrand said it's not uncommon to see accidents on the intersection, but this was one-of-a-kind.
"I see a lot of accidents around this area, but not at this time, not during the early morning. Nothing like this."
Hildebrand also saw two men exit the semi, one taking off down the street with police in tow, and saw the other being arrested.
Unlike many of the crimes Winnipeg police have dealt with in recent months, Carver said he didn't think methamphetamine was to blame for Friday's drama. He said it's not easy to drive a semi truck and speculated the suspects had likely planned the theft.
"It takes a fair amount of competency to steal a semi truck ... I don't think I could," he said.
"I don't think this was a random joyride or a drug-fuelled excursion."
