The search is on for a man caught on camera stealing a semi-truck from a Wilson County auction lot. According to WSMV, the incident took place at Ritchason Auctioneers, where the man trespassed, hopped a fence, and brazenly drove through a locked gate with the vehicle priced around $15,000.
The theft, which had been executed on May 25 at approximately 1:30 p.m., prompted the Wilson County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division to ask for public help. Detectives are tirelessly working to apprehend the suspect, as visible in a video circulating online. Hopping the fence before driving off with the semi-truck, the event's brazenness left employees and locals shocked. To assist in identifying the man involved, contact Detective Travis Donnell at 615-444-1412 extension 252, as reported by the Wilson County Source and reiterated in a Facebook post by the Wilson County Sheriff's Office.
Summer Ritchason, the owner of Ritchason Auctioneers, is particularly troubled by the event. She expressed the company's diligence in protecting the assets on their lot, stating, "There are millions of dollars’ worth of items out here. We want to make sure that everything makes it to auction, that things don’t get stolen. We want our customers to know that their items, we treat them like they are our items. We have plenty of security, and we don’t think this is going to be a continuous issue," in a statement obtained by WSMV.
The company's usual practice involves leaving the keys in vehicles so potential buyers can test them before bidding. This has never been a problem until now. The stolen semi-truck, part of this familiar ritual, left the lot despite layers of security meant to prevent such incidents. Following the theft, the auctioneer company has faced scrutiny over their security measures, despite never having encountered an issue of this scale before, according to Ritchason.
