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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police have charged three men in two separate carjackings involving semi-truck drivers in Memphis.

In both instances, the truck drivers said someone booted their big rigs, forced them to pay a fee, pulled them from their vehicles, and took their trucks.

The first carjacking happened on April 16 in the airport area. The truck driver said he pulled his 2019 freightliner onto a lot in the 3400 lot of Lamar Avenue to allow his drive time to reset.

He said a man put a boot on his truck and demanded he pay $265 to have it removed. The truck driver said he paid the fee, but the man said he never received the payment and told several security guards to remove him from his vehicle.

The victim said the men were armed with guns and physically removed him from the truck and had it towed to A1’s Towing and Hauling in the 100 block of West Mallory.

On July 18, another truck driver said he was parked at Shelby Express truck stop on Shelby Drive when several armed individuals put a boot on his 18-wheeler and told him he would have to pay $265 to remove the boot.

The truck driver said his dispatcher made the payment through an app, but the men said the payment was not made fast enough, and they took his truck.

He said one man kicked him to the ground to get in the driver’s seat, and another person held him down while they hooked up his truck and towed it away.

The victim told police he received a receipt for A1’s Towing and Hauling, and his company had to pay an additional $2,535 to get the semi-truck back the same night.

(L to R) Kenneth Rucker, Quinterius Harrell, and Rickey Hines (Courtesy: Shelby County Jail)

The truck driver identified Rickey Hines, 28, as the person who pushed him to the ground. Police said Hines was a suspect in similar incidents.

The driver who was carjacked on Lamar was able to get pictures of the two men he said forced him out of his truck, and police arrested Kenneth Rucker, 28, and Quinterius Harrell, 34.

WREG contacted A1’s Towing and Hauling to find out if the arrested men were current or former employees. A woman who answered said the company had no comment about the men or the case before hanging up the phone.

Harrell, Rucker, and Hines are charged with carjacking and possession of a firearm during a dangerous felony.

They are scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

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