Texas man wanted tools; takes cops on wild neighborhood chase

A Texas man, jailed on stealing more than $8,000 worth of tools from Home Depot, was still in jail at the McKinley County Adult Detention Center May 4 for aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, shoplifting, resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, an accident involving damage to a vehicle and criminal damage to property of a household member charges, according to jail records.

Roy Gene Ramsey was jailed on a $5,000 bond amount and also on a U.S. Marshal’s federal hold. The federal hold typically stipulates that there is a prior criminal charge in which someone is wanted.

In giving a rundown of the situation, Gallup police officer Dominic Molina recorded in a police report that on April 24 at about 4:07 pm that Ramsey, 50, who lives in San Antonio, Texas, took cops on a high speed chase in the Home Depot, U.S. 491 and Rio West Mall areas. Ramsey reportedly cut a 2-foot hole in the fence behind Home Depot in an effort to steal some power tools and batteries, according to store employee accounts. He apparently was going to put the stuff in his van.

“I was shown the hole in the fence,” Molina wrote in the police report. “Outside the gate below the hole in the fence were several packages of power tools on the floor. There was also a trash can which contained several batteries to power tools.”

Ramsey apparently had planned to put the items in his white van, but was stopped in his tracks by store employees. Molina and another GPD official caught up with Ramsey, but not before he took police on a wild chase that ended in the backyard of a residence on West Maloney Boulevard.

Ramsey jumped out of the van and had to be rundown by Molina. The cost to repair the home depot fence hole was estimated at $500, Molina recorded in the report.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent