Belle Meade police use crime-fighting technology to identify alleged trailer thief

BELLE MEADE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Belle Meade is a city loaded with license plate reading (LPR) cameras and state-of-the-art crime-fighting technology, including GPS darting .

Once again, these investigative tools came in handy tracking a criminal who now appears to be tied to crimes across the mid state.

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Investigators shared a video from a Lynwood Drive construction site that showed a black pickup truck backing up to a trailer loaded with construction equipment. According to the Belle Meade Police Department (BMPD), the driver cut off a lock on the trailer so that he could attach his truck to it and pull it out of the yard.

During his getaway, the truck passed by one of the city's many LPR cameras. Based on the time and location of the crime, detectives sifted through footage from the correct camera to find the truck.

"There were some identifying marks in the truck," Lieutenant Mack Mangrum said. "If you can see in the bed of the truck — you see that yellow tub there."

Investigators told News 2 that, even worse for the thief, the trailer had a GPS tracking device that led detectives to a parking lot behind the Union Station hotel. That's where detectives were able to recover the trailer along with all of the stolen equipment. They found the pickup truck, too.

When detectives searched the truck, they found a moving violation from the day before the trailer theft. The violation had a name and address on it. BMPD told News 2 that they now believe the man whose name appeared on the moving violation is the man seen in the video stealing the trailer.

"Our detective is working with other agencies as far as pending charges go," Mangrum told News 2.

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Belle Meade authorities are still working to officially charge the suspect with this crime.

"I think the technology in this city is great and it's assisting us, along with other agencies, in solving some of these property crimes," Mangrum said.

Investigators told News 2 that as of publication, their prime suspect is in jail in another county. Belle Meade police and other jurisdictions are now looking at the suspect for similar crimes in nearby cities.