Blakemore Thankful for Community After Vehicle Theft

It may sound surprising, but Greenfield resident Terry Blakemore is thankful after her truck was stolen in early morning hours of Dec. 19.

“I’m just thankful that if it had to happen to somebody, it happened to me and not somebody else,” said Blakemore, a familiar face to anyone that frequents the Backwoods Restaurant & Cafe in Greenfield.

Blakemore was getting ready for work at about 2:30 a.m. when she went out to start her old truck that she drove to work every day, the only vehicle she and her husband had. She said after starting the vehicle to get it warming up on the chilly morning, she turned around and walked the 10-15 steps back to the house to change her shoes, only to turn back around and see her truck going down the road.

“I called 911 and reported the theft, and then I walked to work,” said Blakemore. “And that was the last I heard of it until later that morning.”

As her coworkers began arriving that morning, another of the Backwoods staff, who lives across town, told Blakemore that they had had quite a fright a few hours before, with police surrounding their home and shining lights in their windows, scaring their grandchildren.

“I just thought it was so strange that both of us would have such an experience on the same night,” said Blakemore.

It wasn’t too long after that, around 7:30 a.m. reckons Blakemore, that she was contacted by the Dade County Sheriff’s Office and informed that her truck had been located – though it was a total loss after having been in a high-speed chase.

From what Blakemore has learned afterward, there were apparently two individuals, a male and female, involved in a high-speed chase that apparently began in southern Lawrence County and ended in the Greenfield area. After crashing the car they were driving, the female suspect was apprehended and the male suspect fled on foot. This was at about the same time Blakemore’s coworker said their house was surrounded by law enforcement.

The male suspect managed to elude capture, and was looking for a means of escape just as Blakemore was getting ready to leave her house.

“Apparently, his plan was to jump into the passenger seat and then force me to drive him somewhere,” said Blakemore. “If I hadn’t gone back in to change my shoes who knows what might have happened.”

After Blakemore called in the theft, law enforcement spotted the suspect in the truck and gave chase, which ended when a “tree jumped out in front of him,” and he hit it head-on.

“I just never thought this would happen here – I’m telling folks now that unless you have auto-start, don’t be starting your vehicles to warm them up before you leave, now,” said Blakemore.

Though it was her only vehicle, Blakemore was not without transportation very long, and she said the support she and her husband have gotten from the community has been tremendous.

“I’m just so overwhelmed, I’m so glad to live in this community because of so many people offering to help and even loan us vehicles,” said Blakemore. “It was just a truck, a possession, a thing, it can be replaced. I just think about this wounded, desperate individual and if my truck hadn’t been there. If it had to be mine to keep it from happening to someone else, so be it.”

Blakemore said that among the details of the incident she was told was that the male suspect had stripped off his clothing in a vain attempt to prevent police canines from tracking his scent, so he was apparently stark naked when he jumped into her truck and drove off with it.

“The joke’s on him if that’s true – that old truck didn’t have any heat!” said Blakemore.