When Lieutenant Chris Gagnon of the Hendersonville Police Department received a call about a stolen Challenger Hellcat, he likely didn’t guess how deep the case would go. The police in Hendersonville, Tennessee, ended up working with multiple agencies to recover the car. In the process, they found eight stolen vehicles across state lines, discovered a major “VIN swapping” chop shop, and even uncovered an illegal marijuana grow operation.
A 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat “Redeye” was reported stolen on Sept. 30. Security footage showed the thieves knew what they were doing. They arrived in a stolen Jeep, and one of them was armed with a key-programming computer — a tablet they used to create a brand-new fob for the car and drive it away. While Gagnon was investigating the Hellcat theft, a Dodge Durango SRT was stolen from the other end of town.
A trail of clues from Tennessee leads across three states
Gagnon traced the stolen Jeep’s license plate to Hopkinsville, Kentucky. There, detectives recovered a Chrysler 300, a Dodge Challenger, and a truck — all reported stolen from Nashville. When Hendersonville reached out to the Metro Nashville Police Department, the agencies realized they were working the same case.
Nashville police soon located the missing Dodge Durango and stopped three people leaving an apartment complex. Among them was 20-year-old William McGlimer, who was identified in connection to the original Hellcat theft. That same day, detectives received a tip that led them south — to Paint Rock, Alabama…