An East Ellijay police vehicle was sold to an individual in another state with all equipment fully intact after the vehicle was “totaled” out by an insurance company.According to the East Ellijay Police Chief, Greg Arp, there was an electrical fire in the police cruiser several months ago. A claim was made to Trident Insurance and when an adjuster arrived to inspect the vehicle, the adjuster “totaled” the vehicle. The adjuster advised the East Ellijay Police Department to leave everything on the vehicle “as is.”

The police department was then contacted by Trident Insurance saying that someone would come out to pick up the vehicle. The insurance company sold the vehicle to a Ringgold resident, a Mr. Gant, as salvage, and he was the individual who arrived at the police department to get the car. Then the vehicle was sold on Craig’s List to Luke Jeffery Ridings, 20, of a Chattanooga address. It is unclear to authorities at this time who listed the vehicle on Craig’s List.

According to a statement released by Chattanooga Police Sargeant Jerri Weary, Ridings was driving on Market Street in Chattanooga on November 18 when Officer Todd Clay spotted the vehicle and deemed it “suspicious.” Clay observed that the Grey Crown Victoria had what appeared to be blue lights in the window and a front bumper guard but had a “personal” license plate, so he decided to pull the car over. After stopping the vehicle for improper registration, Clay found that the vehicle was equipped with blue lights and siren, a dash camera and mounted radar. Ridings, who was arrested and charged with underage drinking, financial responsibility and driving an unregistered vehicle, told officers that he had purchased the vehicle off Craig’s List for $4000. Vehicle identification records later showed that the vehicle was registered to the East Ellijay Police Department. Weary said that the car was confiscated by the Chattanooga Police and “Nothing will be done with the car until this matter is resolved.”

Chief Arp, in a phone interview, stated that if they had known that the vehicle was going to be resold, nothing would have been left in the car; the equipment would have been removed.

According to Arp, everything falls back on the insurance company. The Ellijay City Attorney has been contacted and asked to investigate the situation. Nothing can be done unless the laws in Tennessee prohibit private ownership of a police vehicle with all of the equipment intact.

Trident Insurance was founded in 2000, and In 2009 Trident became a division of Alteris which was established by Argo Group to provide managed risk solutions to specialty business segments. Trident is one of the largest providers of commercial insurance for small and intermediate sized public entities in the United States.