OMAHA, Neb. — A man has been arrested after stealing a bulldozer from a construction site and telling a 911 dispatcher that he was headed to Omaha to protest, authorities say.
Chad Thiessen, 39, said he planned to “deliver a message to the world about all the corruption and false information the media and government are communicating,” the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday. He also said that people should “stay out of his way.”
Thiessen fortified the cabin of the bulldozer after stealing it from a road project in the town of Muray, which is located just south of Omaha, the sheriff’s office said. He fastened two large pieces of lumber to the bottom part of the front windshield, and he placed many other pieces of timber in the side entrances. He also set a small piece of lumber on the driver’s seat, the Fremont Tribune reported.
Deputies arrived as the bulldozer was being driven on the grassy shoulder of U.S. 75 near the Plattsmouth Airport and eventually were able to divert the driver onto a county roadway. Authorities reached the driver by phone and persuaded him to stop the bulldozer in an open field and exit the bulldozer, the sheriff’s office said.
Lt. Larry Burke said the chase was dangerous because of the size of the bulldozer.
“We can’t put any of our vehicles up in front of something like that. He would have crushed our patrol cars just from the weight and type of vehicle it was, so blocking him in wasn’t an option,” Burke said.
The driver damaged the Plattsmouth Airport’s runway, farm fields and twice became entangled on the Union Pacific railroad tracks, authorities said.
Burke said Thiessen would be charged with criminal mischief and the theft of the bulldozer, and that other counts were likely as the investigation proceeds.
A man who answered the phone at the jail said he didn’t know whether Thiessen had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
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