Tennessee police departments share intel, use LPR cameras to track down theft suspect
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A career criminal out of Mississippi is back behind bars thanks to Tennessee law enforcement agencies sharing information and using license plate recognition technology to track the suspect across the state.
According to the Belle Meade Police Department, during the early morning hours on Wednesday, May 21, someone reported that Euros were stolen from her purse at the Belle Meade Country Club. Authorities used a labyrinth of LPR cameras to find a 2025 Subaru Forester driving through the city.
Detectives told News 2 that Thomas Hooghe, 67, of Jackson, Mississippi, was the man behind the wheel of the car and the suspect in the Belle Meade theft.
Investigators said Hooghe served time for multiple auto thefts. He was released on parole, which is due to expire in 2053.
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Meanwhile, the Hendersonville Police Department said reports started coming in around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday about vehicle burglaries at the YMCA on Bluegrass Commons Boulevard.
HPD shared surveillance footage with News 2 showing a man — later identified as Hooghe — inside the YMCA. Detectives said he pried open four lockers, stole four key fobs, broke into four cars in the parking lot, and stole $400.
'One of our officers received a phone call and a BOLO from Knoxville saying that a vehicle had broken into a YMCA up there, and by LPR, they put it in our city,' HPD Cmdr. Jimmy Garrett said.
The Knoxville Police Department sent over surveillance footage that looked like the suspect in HPD's case.
Around the same time, Tom Sexton, an investigator with Belle Meade police who was also tracking the Subaru using LPR technology, saw that Hooghe's car had just been in Hendersonville and gave HPD the suspect's name, which they did not have at that point.
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'So from that point, we had our suspect because we compared the pictures from Knoxville and from Belle Meade,' Garrett said.
Armed with all this info, Hendersonville detectives used LPR technology to track Hooghe's Subaru to another Tennessee city: Jackson.
HPD notified the Jackson Police Department, which found the Subaru at a restaurant. Meanwhile, Hendersonville authorities had arrest warrants drawn up and sent them to Jackson law enforcement, who took Hooghe into custody.
According to investigators, the suspect was still wearing a watch stolen in another burglary.
Police said they probably would have solved this case individually, but working together and employing the power of LPR technology made all the difference, resulting in an arrest the same day as the crime spree.
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'If it wasn't for LPR, we eventually would have solved this, and so would the other departments, but with the information sharing and the LPR, we were able to track his locations and alert the people quickly to where he was at, [and] we were able to apprehend him the day he committed our crime,' Garrett said.
Hooghe has since been transported to the Sumner County Jail, where he is charged with four counts of vehicle burglary and one county of theft under $1,000, according to HPD. However, News 2 has learned that more charges from other cities are very probable.
If you have any information about Hooghe's case, you're encouraged to contact HPD at 615-822-1111 or the Hendersonville Crime Stoppers at 615-594-4113.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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