Accused of stealing a Winnebago Winnie Minnie and leading Cheyenne police on an icy car chase that ended with a 50-foot spray of fiery sparks jetting from the vehicle’s bare wheel rims over the weekend [SEE VIDEO BELOW], a 44-year-old Cheyenne man is in jail awaiting criminal charges.
Someone reported the Winnebago stolen Saturday from the area of Moose Lodge off South Greely Highway, according to a statement the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) released late Sunday.
On Sunday evening, deputies located the Winnebago on Horse Creek Road, and deputies coordinated to contact the driver, who was later identified as Ryan Jenkins, the statement says.
Agents put a spike strip under one of the Winnebago’s tires. When Jenkins realized the deputies were there, he drove off, deflating one tire, says the statement.
Deputies chased the Winnebago east on Horse Creek Road.
As Jenkins passed over Interstate 25, Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) troopers spike-stripped multiple other tires, which disintegrated, the statement says.
The narrative says Jenkins kept driving through several traffic control devices on “just the sparking wheels,” until he failed to navigate the bend at the intersection of Lincolnway and Nationway, where he went off the road at the Cowboy Dodge car dealership on East Lincolnway.
No vehicles at Cowboy Dodge were damaged, the sheriff’s office reported.
Jenkins then tried to run from Cheyenne Police Department, Wyoming Highway Patrol and Laramie County Sheriff’s Office agents on foot. But after a brief chase, he was taken into custody without further incident and booked into the Laramie County Detention Center, says the statement.
LCSO’s statement thanks the WHP, CPD and the Laramie County dispatch center.
Jetting Fire
From her home in the Pershing Boulevard area, Hailey Tomison watched the RV chase through a window and caught part of it on video.
Her short video shows the Winnebago hurtling down on a road that Tomison said was still slick from a Saturday snowstorm, throwing fiery sparks at least two car lengths behind it. Multiple police vehicles chase the Winnebago in the video.
Tomison got a notification on a phone scanner application that a car chase was progressing in the area, and she started listening to it. Then she looked outside to see police vehicles cresting Whitney Road, she told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
“I texted my mom and was like, ‘Um, you need to come watch this. It’s crazy,’” said Tomison.
When the massive police presence rushed down the road, Tomison decided to just start recording.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Tomison, adding, “I’m just glad that everybody was safe. They were going pretty fast.”
Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaiy.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
