A police pursuit through Olde Town East ended early Thursday morning when a suspected stolen vehicle spun out of control and slammed into a home on Bryden Road, severing a gas meter and tearing through a backyard fence just feet from where residents were sleeping. No injuries were reported, and police say the people inside the home slept through the entire incident.
The chase began around 2:20 a.m. after the driver of the stolen vehicle refused to pull over for an attempted traffic stop, according to a public safety dispatcher cited by WBNS 10TV. The pursuit ended on Bryden Road near South 17th Street, according to the Columbus Division of Fire, as first reported by NBC4 WCMH-TV. The car reportedly crashed into a gas line next to the home before losing control entirely.
“It was very shocking,” resident Josh Lapp said of the crash, per NBC4's report. Authorities have not indicated how many suspects may have been involved in the incident, though local dispatch news service Streetscoop 614 reported that officers took one suspect into custody at the scene on Bryden Road immediately following the collision.
Firefighters Scan for Gas Pockets Near the Home
The crash happened in the 800 block of Bryden Road, where the stolen car lost control, severed a natural gas meter, and damaged a fence within feet of the residence, according to WBNS 10TV's reporting. Firefighters shut off natural gas to the area to mitigate any explosion risk while checking surrounding structures, and crews were coordinating with Columbia Gas to check the lines further.
Firefighters were looking for potential gas pockets in and around the home following the impact. Under Columbia Gas of Ohio's emergency response guidelines, technicians are required to shut off supply lines and deploy combustible gas detectors across nearby structures whenever a meter is struck by a vehicle, since damaged meters create risks of gas migrating underground into basements.
What Triggered the Pursuit Remains Unclear
The pursuit's origins raise questions under the Columbus Division of Police's own rules. Directive 5.02 prohibits officers from initiating vehicular pursuits unless there is reasonable suspicion that an occupant committed a violent felony or poses an immediate threat to human life — fleeing from police alone is not grounds for a chase under that policy. It remains unclear what specific circumstances led supervisors to authorize this pursuit over a stolen vehicle in the middle of the night.
The driver now faces potential charges under a tougher state law. Ohio Revised Code § 2921.331, amended by House Bill 56 in October 2024, makes willfully fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle a felony that escalates to a third-degree felony when it creates a substantial risk of serious physical harm to property or people — a charge carrying a potential prison term of 9 months to 5 years.
A Recurring Problem for Columbus Streets
Olde Town East is a historic, densely built residential neighborhood east of downtown Columbus, known for narrow streets like Bryden Road, according to Walk Score and Zumper neighborhood data. Tight residential setbacks in the area mean an out-of-control vehicle can easily strike private property, as happened here.
This is not the first time a stolen-vehicle chase has ended in a Columbus residential crash. In September 2025, police arrested five teenagers after a high-speed pursuit of a stolen Kia ended in a crash on Whittier Street on the city's south side, WBNS 10TV reported at the time. Columbus police statistics show motor vehicle thefts in the city actually fell 16.9%, from 591 to 491 reported incidents, between late 2024 and late 2025, according to Police1. Statewide, Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers had investigated 29,581 traffic crashes through early August, underscoring how common vehicle collisions remain across the state even as certain crime categories decline.
Key questions remain open, including whether CPD supervisors formally authorized the early-morning chase, what precise charges have been filed against the suspect taken into custody, and whether Columbia Gas has issued a final safety clearance addressing any underground gas migration near the damaged home.
