WELD COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office responded to a stolen vehicle report that ended with a construction worker in custody.
According to Joe Moylan with the WCSO, Larimer County received the initial call at 8:30 a.m. that an employee with a construction company took a truck without authorization from his worksite located in the 5800 block of East County Road 66.
LCSO said the caller believed the suspect was possibly intoxicated and said he hit a gate while leaving the worksite.
An hour later at 9:30 a.m., the suspect drove into Weld County. At that point, WCSO took over the call. Moylan said the suspect was near the train tracks between Weld County Road 100 and 108.
The Colorado Department of Transportation closed both directions of Highway 85 between County Road 100 and County Road 108 due to the heavy police presence. The area is located north of the town of Nunn which sits south of the Colorado-Wyoming border.
Ault Police Department was the first agency on scene according to Moylan. The suspect tried to drive away and was side-swiped by a train and he ended up getting stuck on the side of the train tracks. The car was then disabled.
The train remains stopped on the tracks after the collision.
Moylan said the WCSO then worked to recover the stolen vehicle. Deputies tried to negotiate with the suspect, but he would not comply.
Deputies established a contact team and fired one round of gas at the suspect, but the attempt failed. On the second attempt, deputies were able to break the passenger door and unlock the truck manually, according to Moylan.
Video from SkyFOX showed officers take the suspect into custody. Deputies do not believe the suspect was armed at any time.
The suspect was transported to an area hospital for evaluation.
As of 11:50 a.m., both directions of Highway 85 between County Road 100 and 108 have been reopened.