A high-speed chase with a heavy load

FINKSBURG, Md. - On its face, you may wonder why anyone would want to steal a super sized stump grinder, but it’s worth $35,000, and if you throw in a Ford F250, it’s grand theft worth a grand pay day.

"They ripped the ignition apart and used a screwdriver to start it, and that's how they got out of here with it," said Pat Stansbury, the owner of the landscaping business targeted in Finksburg, who knows just how much thieves prize such equipment.

They made off with one of his $45,000 skid loaders last year.

"I got 20 years in doing this work, but it's hard to keep going when you got to worry about going to sleep each night, because your equipment is sitting somewhere," said Stansbury.

This time the thief wouldn’t get too far thanks to an alert trooper patrolling Route 140.

"The truck still had frost on it.  The piece of equipment... a piece of landscaping equipment at 1:30 in the morning just seemed suspicious,” said Elena Russo of the Maryland State Police, “So the trooper attempted to pull over the driver."

State Police say 38-year old Mark Joseph Kyle of Linthicum took off as the trooper got out of his car and sped down 795 to Nicodemus Road before turning into a neighborhood where the trailer overturned sending the truck down a steep embankment.
 
They say Kyle fled on foot, but didn’t get far.

Stansbury says he’s thankful the trooper saved his equipment this time, but he doubts it will be the last time.

"I think people are ought to get money any way they can to support their habits.  Everybody I know has had things stolen from them.  It's not just this area.  It's Baltimore County... Carroll County... it's everywhere."

According to the suspect’s criminal history, Mark Joseph Kyle is no stranger to the courts.

In recent years, he’s been charged with acting as a contractor without a license and failing to perform work in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City and Prince George’s County.