University construction management senior Dalton McLain was picking up his friends from Fred’s in Tigerland when his 2006 gray Chevrolet Silverado was stolen and totalled by Zachary Burgess, 20, of Hoover, Ala.
McLain arrived at the bar with his friend Monique Giarrusso a little after 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
It was raining when he parked in front of the bar and he did not see his friends, he said.
“Hold tight, I’ll be back in 30 seconds,” he told Giarrusso.
McLain said when he was approaching the entrance to the bar, one of his friends told him someone was driving his truck wildly around the parking lot.
Meanwhile, Giarrusso, a pre-dental junior, was still in the truck when Burgess entered the driver’s seat.
“Not even a minute [after McLain left] this kid jumps into the truck,” Giarrusso said.
At first she believed he was a friend of McLain’s, but he ignored her when she asked who he was.
“He had a rage in his eyes,” she said. “He was determined to get out and didn’t care what was in his way.”
She said he began to tear through the parking lot in McLain’s truck while she was in the passenger’s seat, hitting other vehicles and three pedestrians.
“He was in his own world,” she said.
She said she managed to escape while the truck was caught on another vehicle.
McLain said when he found his vehicle, it was caught on the other vehicle. Moments later, the truck was freed from the vehicle, going into the road and hitting a Tahoe before striking a tree in the median.
The ordeal lasted about three minutes, but it “felt like a lifetime,” he said.
He noticed that the whole area smelled of burnt rubber, even with the rain.
Burgess then drove away down the road as McLain and about 15 others chased after the truck, discovering it abandoned down the road, he said.
McLain said he saw Burgess running down the road and pursued him. McLain was able to trip him and pin him down until police officers arrived.
Baton Rouge Police Cpl. Don Copolla said Burgess was arrested and charged with theft of a motor vehicle, nine counts of hit and run and simple kidnapping because Giarrusso was in the car when it was stolen.
Giarrusso said although Burgess never touched her, he would not allow her to stop the truck or a chance to escape and he is deserving of his simple kidnapping charge.
Although she was not shaken at the time, she said she will now be more cautious around the bars.
McLain said he feels like it a was a dream he was living.
He mentioned it was suprising to him that Burgess would act the way he did without being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but Copolla said there was no probable cause that Burgess was under the influence of either.
McLain said he overheard officers saying that Burgess wanted to act like he was in the “Grand Theft Auto” video game.
“He had a rage in his eyes. He was determined to get out and didn’t care what was in his way.”