Truck crashes after cell phone robbery in Detroit neighborhood

The front end of a Ford pickup truck was smashed and nearly wrapped around a tree -- the aftermath of a robbery gone bad.  The ordeal started with a cell phone.

"He was going to work and the guys inside the truck, they took his phone," said witness Ariel Houser.

Witnesses tell us the man who had his cell phone stolen was so ticked off he chased after the thieves, caught up with them and jumped into the back of the truck.  Minutes later, all three of them would be on their way to the hospital.

"He jumped into the back of the truck and the driver lost control of his wheel and they crashed into the tree," Houser explained.

"The pickup truck traveled northbound Stout and went eastbound onto Hessel at a high rate of speed, made a wide turn, collided into the tree.  All three victims are being treated at the hospital," said Detroit Police Investigator Charles Wills.

"The driver, he can't walk anymore.  His legs [were] really flat," Houser said.

Police tell us the three guys appeared to be pretty young in their late teens or early twenties.  They are working to figure out if the truck is stolen.

The robbery happened just before 11:00 a.m. Tuesday in a residential neighborhood with innocent people walking by.

"It must have been something important in that phone," Wills said.

"They could have hit an innocent person," said Fox 2's Ronnie Dahl remarked to him.

"When you're robbing somebody, you don't take that into consideration."

It took several hours for the wreckage to be hauled away.  The accident remains under investigation.