Monster Truck Theft Leads Police To Auto Theft Ring
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The theft of a monster truck from a parking lot on the Dallas North Tollway led to an officer involved shooting in rural South Dallas and tipped police off to an auto theft ring.
Dallas Hale, the owner of the Shell Shack's truck, found it in DeSoto, a quarter mile off road in the woods.
"There was one tire completely flat. It was stripped out. There was stuff stolen from it," he said.
Just getting it out of the woods required an unusual amount of effort.
"Literally chopped down all the trees around it, hooked up the 4 wheel drive to it," he explained.
Three days later, the iconic truck is getting repairs, but the investigation into its theft keeps getting bigger. Police arrested David Campbell, the same man who led Hale to his truck in exchange for a 5,000 dollar reward.
"It's looking more and more like he was involved and trying to get the reward on top of it," said Hale.
Officers say a tip then led them to this second stolen truck. A driver crashed it after police chased him for about 8 blocks. He then jumped into a stolen Ford Mustang. Another man was driving it, and police say when he hit an officer, a second officer shot him.
"The fact that it turned out to be this big car theft ring, I was pretty surprised," said Hale.
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