North Carolina Man Driving Stolen John Deere Tractor Leads Police On A Wild Chase; Cops Save The Day By Shooting Out A Tire

Old boy Ronnie Hicks of Boone, North Carolina is about to become a tabloid sensation around the world for the stunt he pulled Tuesday morning while all snookered up on some hooch -- allegedly.

I've been at this Internet job a long time -- 15 years, which feels like 50 years of real life -- and I've yet to come across a police story where cops tried to shoot out the tires of a John Deere tractor as a DWI suspect led them on a chase.

But that's exactly what happened this morning around 9 a.m. when Ronnie decided it was go-time.

“Our officers tried to use stop sticks but because it’s a tractor, the stop sticks were not effective on the back tires,” Boone Police Chief Andy Le Beau told the Watauga Democrat in a post-game interview. “When he got outside of town into an area that didn’t have any homes or businesses, we did shoot one of the tractor tires in an effort to get the vehicle stopped.”

“When he got outside of town into an area that didn’t have any homes or businesses, we did shoot one of the tractor tires in an effort to get the vehicle stopped.”

This wasn't a typical chase. Hicks, police say, was "intentionally" driving into on-coming traffic on U.S. 421 and he hit multiple cars, including a police cruiser. The wild man, who is well-known by local police, also crashed into a dumpster and a church.

How does a John Deere police chase end?

Watauga Online reports Hicks, who was armed with a knife, ditched the tractor around 10 a.m. and led police on a foot chase. Cops grabbed their tasers and blasted Ronnie, but they couldn't get the barbs to make solid contact.

Eventually order was restored and Ronnie was being hauled into the Watauga County Jail where he'll face a slew of charges including felony fleeing, assault on a government official with a deadly weapon, DWI and whatever else the police can dump on the prosecutor's desk.

"What a day... So, many of you have heard, or have seen the videos, that we got in a pursuit with a tractor," the Boone Police Department said in a Facebook statement. "The stolen tractor was being operated by a person who we are very familiar with, Mr. Ronnie Hicks.

"We received a call about the tractor being driven erratically in a parking lot trying to hit pedestrians and did in fact hit a vehicle off 421 on the east side of town. He actually hit several vehicles, a dumpster and a church. We are still trying to sort it all out."

Boone, NC police say they're very familiar with Ronnie Hicks, the John Deere police chase suspect. / Boone PD