HAPEVILLE, Ga. — A viral TikTok video shows a bizarre police chase involving a man on a stolen tractor.
Channel 2′s Elizabeth Rawlins was in Hapeville, where police chased the tractor for several miles on a busy highway early Thursday morning.
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According to a police report, the tractor was stolen from College Park and officers spotted it driving down Virginia Avenue.
When officers tried to pull over the driver, he led them on a slow-speed chase for several miles.
An officer eventually jumped onto the tractor right before it crashed into a parked car in the parking lot of a Waffle House.
Video shows officers with their guns drawn and pointing to the tractor in the restaurant’s parking lot.
“Somebody had the nerve to steal a whole tractor,” someone says.
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The suspect, identified as Matthew Fortune, was pepper-sprayed before being taken into custody.
Rawlins spoke to Ulysses Ingram, who works nearby and saw the end of the chase.
“I don’t know how safe a tractor is going through here. I would choose another vehicle,” Ingram said. “The position that he pulled in, I don’t know where he thought he was going to get away with it, but not in Atlanta.”
It’s unclear where and how Fortune managed to steal the tractor, and while it may be unusual, some people say it’s not uncommon.
“We have a lot of construction sites out here with expensive machinery,” Armstrong said. “People try to get away with stuff but we keep things pretty locked up.”
It’s unclear what charges Ingram is facing.
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