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SOUTH SALT LAKE — Shannon Harris, the owner of the Sinclair gas station on 3300 South and Main St., thought Wednesday morning was going to be a typical day — it turned out to be anything but.
Around 10 a.m., Harris said a customer left his 2005 Acura running outside near a gas pump as he came in to get a drink. Harris watched as another man jumped into the running car and took off.
Instead of picking up the phone to call police, Harris grabbed his car keys.
“We just jumped in our (Harris’) car and just went after him,” Harris said.
He and the customer chased after the accused car thief, but he didn’t make it far because of a passing TRAX train. The arms at the TRAX stop were down at Washington Street and 3300 South, so the man driving the stolen Acura hit another truck and then jumped out and ran, Harris said.
Harris, 54, said the chase continued, but he didn’t make it very far on foot.
“I was out of breath, and I was just huffing and puffing, and I was right by the road and this really nice Porche comes by and says ‘Get in, man. Let's go get him,’ " Harris said.
I was out of breath, and I was just huffing and puffing, and I was right by the road and this really nice Porche comes by and says 'Get in, man. Let's go get him.'
–Shannon Harris, gas station owner
At this point, Harris said a few cars passing by started to notice what was going on and pointed Harris and the Porche driver toward the man on foot.
“Two other cars saw what happened, they were following the guy as he was running. They were outside their window saying, ‘He's over here, he's over here!' ” Harris said.
The chase ended near 3196 South and 300 West when the Porche driver got out of the car and tackled the alleged thief.
“The guy in the Porche was a pretty hefty guy, so he gets out goes and just tackles him on the ground,” Harris said.
South Salt Lake police arrived and arrested 30-year-old Andrew Womack on suspicion of auto theft charges and booked him into the Salt Lake County Jail.
“I wouldn’t recommend anyone trying to apprehend anyone, because anything can happen," said South Salt Lake police officer Gary Keller. "This just happened to end without incident.”
Harris said it the community effort to stop Womack was something he certainly doesn’t see every day.
“(It's) just kind of a cool story when people pull together like that," Keller said. "They could have easily just gone on their way, but they saw what was going on and helped out."
