(Michigan City, IN) - A semi-truck driver used his rig to stop a suspected Michigan City shoplifter during a high-speed pursuit last evening.

 

Royale Murphy, 27, was booked into the La Porte County Jail for resisting law enforcement, theft, reckless driving and other counts.

 

According to La Porte County Police, the South Bend man was caught by a store security officer at Walmart with nearly $200 in clothing he failed to pay for at a self-checkout lane.  Police said a sheriff’s deputy chased him on foot in the parking lot but Murphy was able to get into a vehicle and while speeding away slammed into a shopping cart holder.

 

Murphy then made the short drive to Interstate 94 where the officer pursued him as the suspect kept switching lanes in moderate to heavy traffic.  Eventually, the fleeing pick-up truck veered into the opposite lanes of Indiana 49 at Chesterton.  

 

Police said Murphy was in the process of returning to Interstate 94 when the truck driver pulled across a ramp the suspect was on.   The maneuver prevented the suspect from continuing on any further and he was taken into custody at gunpoint.

 

Murphy was being held on $15,000 bond.