CMPD: Man accused of stealing tires off cars at CLT is driver who died in chase

CHARLOTTE — A man accused of stealing tires off a car at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport is also the same man who died after leading a police chase last week, investigators said.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said between Aug. 18 and Aug. 20, they found three BMWs stripped of their wheels and tires on the drivers’ sides. This was along Old Dowd Road and Josh Birmingham Parkway, both of which are at the airport.

An American Airlines pilot told Channel 9 that after the wheels were stolen off his car, he was concerned about break-ins and crime at Charlotte Douglas. His car was in an open-air, fenced-in lot on Old Dowd Road.

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“Seeing that that pilot came back to his car, sitting literally on its brake rotors with no wheels on it, that infuriated a lot of people,” Erik DeWinne, the Charlotte vice chair of the American Airlines Pilots Union, said last week.

Then on Aug. 22, troopers tried to stop a speeding car whose driver wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. The driver, later identified as Alexander Komthongpane, 33, refused to stop and lost control of his car. He ran off the road and hit a tree near the intersection of Fred D. Alexander Boulevard and Freedom Drive.

A witness told Channel 9 the car quickly burst into flames.

Troopers performed CPR on the driver but it was too late. They said Komthongpane died at the scene.

CMPD detectives determined Komthongpane was also the suspect in the car part thefts. They discovered the wheels on Komthongpane’s car were taken from the cars at the airport.

Komthongpane was already known to CMPD because he was involved in several catalytic converter thefts and larceny of motor vehicle theft cases across Charlotte, they said.

Car thefts here are down 44% this year compared to last year, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Airport Division.

Those crimes are also down an average of 22% over the past five years, despite a big increase in passengers.

They also said there have been three car break-ins in the lot for flight crew members and employees this year, which were isolated, police said.

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‘It was tragic’: Troopers pull man from fiery crash in west Charlotte after chase

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