MCMINN COUNTY, Tenn. — McMinn County officers said they had their hands full Sunday after a bizarre series of events led police, deputies and state troopers on a tractor-hunt and low-speed chase around the county.
Athens Police arrested Broderick Arnett, 40, from Riceville Sunday and accused him of stealing a $450,000 tractor and damaging a metal fence in the process.
According to the arrest report, Athens officer Jamie Carmack said it all began after he responded to a suspicious Ford Ranger pickup truck parked at the Ag-Pro on South Congress Parkway around 2 p.m. on January 24.
The officer said he found no one inside or around the vehicle when he arrived, but noticed the metal fence around the service area of the business was "heavily damaged." It appeared a large vehicle had crashed into it from the inside, but the burglar alarm had not gone off.
Carmack said he could feel heat coming off the engine of the parked truck, so he ran the plates and discovered it belonged to Arnett. He also checked Arnett's background, and said he had been suspected and arrested for various vehicle burglaries in the past.
After contacting the business owner, the officer said they discovered a classic green and yellow 2017 John Deere tractor with a front blade attachment had disappeared. The owner said the keys had been left in it at the time and confirmed it had been stolen.
As the shop owner tried to pull up more information on the tractor, Carmack said a customer told them they had seen the tractor a short time earlier outside Athens city limits off Rocky Mount Road. Two deputies with the McMinn County Sheriff's Office joined Carmack to search the area, but found nothing.
The three then received a call from communications saying another deputy had found the tractor in a parking lot of a Shell convenience store in Riceville. As he made his way to the store, Carmack received word the Tennessee Highway Patrol and other McMinn County deputies were chasing the tractor after a man and woman ignored deputies and refused to get out.
Carmack received an address where the tractor had stopped and arrived to find troopers and deputies chasing it again.
One of the deputies was able to take the woman, identified as Elizabeth Powell, into custody after she got out of the tractor. The deputy handed custody over to Carmack for questioning, who took Powell to the Athens Police Department while the deputy helped chase down the tractor.
Going for a Sunday Ride
According to the Carmack's affidavit, Powell told officers Arnett was her boyfriend -- saying she didn't know the tractor was stolen and wasn't with him at the time it was stolen.
She said Arnett had pulled into the driveway and asked her to ride with him in the tractor, saying he told her a friend had told him he could drive it and claimed he had to take it back to Riceville. The two rode together to the convenience store before deputies confronted them and told them to get out of the tractor.
At that point, she said Arnett refused to get out and said he claimed he "didn't do anything wrong." She said she tried to get out, but he told her not to open the door as he pulled out of the convenience store. Powell said she pleaded with Arnett to stop, but he refused.
Powell said the two then stopped at a friend's home where she was able to get out before being taken into custody. She said Arnett took off in the tractor again while trying to evade deputies and a state trooper.
As Carmack questioned Powell, law enforcement worked get Arnett off the tractor and into custody. The slow-speed chase ended after Arnett got out of the tractor, and a deputy tased him while he tried to go inside his house.
Officers took Arnett to the Athens Police Department and read him his rights before questioning him.
According to Carmack, Arnett continued to claim he didn't do anything wrong. Arnett told officers he was by himself when he had driven his pickup truck to the Ag-Pro. He said he crawled through a hole in the fence near a corner, claiming a man named "Jason Roberson" had texted him permission to use the tractor.
The Mysterious "Mr. Roberson"
With the keys still in the tractor, Arnett told police he drove it out of the service area -- but not before he admitted to driving "over the fence." When asked if he thought it was unusual to drive the tractor over the fence instead of "Mr. Roberson" opening it or giving him the key to it, police said Arnett couldn't give them a plausible answer.
Arnett told police he drove the tractor to pick up his girlfriend so they could go for a ride and he could show her how to drive it. At the convenience store, he said "someone" tried to get him to exit the tractor, but claimed the person did not identify themselves.
He continued to drive and did not stop for the blue lights behind him -- claiming he had done nothing wrong and did not feel the need to stop. It wasn't until he left the tractor and tried to enter his home that the deputy tased him and took him into custody.
After the incident, Officer Carmack called the store owner back and received an estimate on the damaged fence. It would cost more than $3,000 to repair it. When asked about the "Mr. Roberson" Arnett had told them about, the owner said no one with that name worked there, but he knew of a man with a similar last name of "Robertson."
Carmack talked with this person, who said he was a customer of Ag-Pro and not an employee. Robertson said he received a text message the day of the incident from a then-unknown sender. Robertson gave police the messages.
The text message chain eventually led to the sender asking about a tractor he had "spied," and Robertson asked him what he was talking about. The sender texted Robertson back with things like "Wonder who it belongs to?" and "I'd like to use it for a little bit," to which he replied back saying he had no idea.
When the sender said he'd like to trade his 1993 Ford Ranger, which has a high-end value below $1,000, for the $450,000 John Deere 9470R, Robertson simply replied with "lol."
Still having no clue who the sender was, the person texted, "well you recon a man would be prosecuted for a joyride if he didn't tear it up? lol." Robertson said he thought he was being pranked.
Robertson replied "try it." The sender then responded in disbelief and said something about going to a water park.
After the tractor incident, Robertson said he eventually realized who the texter was: Broderick Arnett. He said Arnett used to work for him, but said he fired him for drug use and theft.
Officers seized Arnett's cell phones and took his pickup truck to the city impound lot.
Arnett is currently being held at the McMinn County Justice Center and is charged with theft of property over $250,000 and vandalism over $1,000.