BPD: FC woman steals vehicle, waves to family who owns it, chased down by BPD and arrested

By John Estridge

A Brookville family was sitting on their porch on Main Street early Thursday evening, May 20, when they saw one of their vehicles drive by on Main Street. The woman behind the wheel waved to them.

After a vehicular chase involving the Brookville Police Department, Randi Meyer, 34, was arrested and later charged with Resisting Law Enforcement and Theft, both as Level 6 felonies.

According to an Affidavit for Probable Cause filed by Brookville Police Department Officer Ryan Lackey with a supplement filed by BPD Officer Daniel Foresee, the incident began with a 911 call from the Brookville family who lives on Main Street. That call came at 6:07 p.m.

Forsee responded to the residence to get information; however, he heard Lackey had a visual on the vehicle alleged to have been stolen, a brown GMC Sierra, near the intersection of Indiana 101 and Oxford Pike. Lackey got behind the vehicle and activated his emergency lights to make a stop, which was accomplished near the intersection of Ind. 101 and Ind. 1 in Brookville.

After Lackey exited his vehicle and began walking up to the Sierra, the female behind the Sierra’s wheel, later identified as Meyer, turned back, looked at Lackey and then drove away at a high rate of speed.

Lackey went back to his vehicle and left in pursuit with lights and sirens activated.

The chase went down multiple streets and alleys including Franklin Avenue, which was very crowded with parked cars as there was a visitation in progress at the Phillips and Meyers Funeral home located between 10^th and 11^th streets on Franklin.

Lackey wrote in his report “The GMC continued recklessly through multiple streets and alleys in Brookville finally coming to a stop at the intersection of 7^th and High Street.”

Forsee had left the victims’ residence and went to help out in the chase. He was sitting stationary at the intersection of 10^th Street and Franklin Avenue when he witnessed the Sierra traveling southbound on Franklin Avenue. The Sierra turned left onto 10^th Street and went to its intersection with Fairfield Avenue, which becomes Mill Street just south of there at the bottom of Grandstand Hill. After going southbound on Mill, the Sierra turned right or west onto 7^th Street. Its next turn was north on High Street.

Then, according to the officers’ reports, the Sierra, with Meyer at the wheel, turned into a gravel drive across from the former Zimmer Tractor buildings. Lackey pulled his vehicle behind the Sierra, blocking it in the drive. Lackey said Meyer kept moving the Sierra back and forth in the drive, looking as if she were going to ram the police vehicle.

Eventually, Meyer exited the vehicle and was placed under arrest by Lackey, and Meyer was taken in handcuffs to the Franklin County Security Center.

Lackey read Meyer the Miranda Warning and asked if she understood. She answered “Mhm.” Meyer then began to talk about the walls’ color and how she did not like the color. Lackey asked about the Sierra she was driving. Meyer responded “I don’t really care.” Lackey asked Meyer if she were going to talk to him about the incident, and she said “no.”

Foresee went back to the victims’ home and talked to the family about the situation.

Family members said after they saw the Sierra drive by and what allegedly turned out to be Meyer wave to them, they went to the back of the house and determined the vehicle was missing. Then, they called family members to see if anyone had borrowed the vehicle. No family members had borrowed it. When asked, family members said they did not know Meyer.

If convicted of a Level 6 Felony, Meyer could receive a sentence of six months to 2.5 years in the Franklin County Security Center.

According to MyCase.IN.gov, Meyer pleaded guilty to Possession of Cocaine and Possession of Marijuana in 2014 and was sentenced to one year at the FCSC with all time suspended. A charge of Conversion was dismissed in December 2020. And a charge of Disorderly Conduct was also dismissed on the same day on December 4, 2020.