CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — The woman accused of stealing a Kingston Springs police cruiser from the scene of a house fire early Tuesday morning was injured after investigators say she crashed the vehicle on the interstate in Cheatham County.
Kingston Springs police said their officers responded to a house fire on Wax Wing Circle around 5 a.m. and found the homeowner, Janet Givens, standing outside in the cold, so they allowed her to sit in the back seat of a patrol car.
As officers were looking in the windows of the burning home to see if anyone was inside, they said Givens was somehow able to take control of the patrol vehicle and drive off.
An officer witnessed the stolen patrol vehicle crash through the guardrail of an Interstate 40 overpass near mile marker 185 around 5:30 a.m. Givens, who was driving the stolen cruiser was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening, according to investigators.
Upon her release from the hospital, Givens was transported to the Cheatham County jail, where she faced at least one charge of theft.
The incident remains under investigation.
Several lanes of the interstate were closed for more than an hour, but reopened around 7 a.m.
