In 1995, Shawn Nelson, a former Army tank commander drove into a National Guard armory and stole an M60A3 tank. He drove the tank out of the armory, and onto residential streets where he began crushing things in his path. He drove the tank onto a highway and was pursued by a number of San Diego Police Department cars.
Eventually, Nelson crashed the tank into a concrete barrier and police embarked on top of the turret where they cut the hatch open with bolt cutters. Nelson began to spin the tank in an attempt to shake the officers off and was shot by police.
Does the bolt cutter thing still work? Asking for a friend
Wikipedia says the hatch was combat locked, but there is really no way that I can see to attack the hatch with bolt cutters. I suspect (and this is entirely speculation) that the true detail missing on Wikipedia may be that one of the hatches was locked from the outside with a padlock, which is a common way of securing other military vehicles when they are in depots. If the lock was cut and the hatch was not locked from the inside, that would be the way police got access.
Tanks have more than one hatch. (IIRC a M60A3 has two on the turret and a driver hatch in the hull). He was mentioned has having cut padlocks on a few tanks, which supports the supposition they were locked in that way.
Once inside, he may have combat locked the hatch he had broken into, but not combat locked the other hatches, which would still have padlocks on the outside.
Again, that’s all speculation but based on the way combat locks work I have trouble picturing police somehow cutting the door itself open.
Dude had a tank and couldn’t evade a ⭐⭐⭐ wanted level? Amateur.
What a sad story.
Things went shit. He abused drugs, things got more shit, his wife left him, things got shittier.
I mean after going through all that and meth? I’m just glad to read he didn’t kill anyone.
I wonder what would’ve happened if this guy and the Killdozer guy would’ve met.
Will someone draw the killdozer humping the tank on the freeway with cop cars in the background? Or am I going to have to spend more money to get that commissioned? I need this. Do ask why.
