There are police chases, and then there are police chases. The latest viral incident out of Nashville was an 7 mph Nissan Altima caper that entertained the city for four hours. But it also slowed down thousands of commuters and left one mother of three walking an hour to work and an hour home every day, for the foreseeable future.

“That’s my car!”

Miriam Harris was one of many Nashville residents who opened her phone Tuesday morning to witness a bizarre scene on I-24. A convoy of police cars and emergency vehicles surrounded a black Nissan Altima crawling down the highway. Behind them was a column of morning commuters late for work. Harris did a double-take and shouted, “That’s my car!”

Harris is a mom of three who works hard, and had finally saved up enough to buy a Nissan Altima. But her old friend Katlyn Wray was just out of jail and looking for work. Wray asked to borrow the Altima to go get her license and drive to a job interview. So two days after she’d bought the Nissan, Harris leant her friend the car. She even gave her some money for expenses.

Harris said, “We’ve been friends for 20 years. I’ve used her car, she’s used mine.” But when it came time to return the car, Wray never showed. As time went on, Harris made the hard choice to call the police and report her Altima stolen.

Police find the stolen Nissan Altima

At 3 AM, Metro Nashville PD officers noticed a black Altima idling on the street. The four officers peered inside. It was impossible to miss 28-year-old Wray asleep at the wheel in a bright pink shirt. They were about to wake her up, but ran the plates. The car came back as stolen. That’s when they had the bright idea to lay spike strips behind and in front of the car.

Then police woke Wray and ordered her to get out. Instead, she threw the Nissan in reverse and floored it. She ran over one spike strip and slammed into a police cruiser. Another cruiser had parked to block her from pulling forward. She put the car in “Drive” and floored it anyway. She drove over the second spike strip, sideswiped the second police car, and took off. But soon, she was rolling on four flat tires.

The flat tires didn’t stop Wray. Neither did the police officers following close behind her stolen Nissan. She pulled onto the highway and began to accelerate. At about 15 mph she realized how precarious it is to drive a car with no tires. So she slowed down to 7 mph and just kept going.

For four hours, Wray ignored the police behind her, the helicopters overhead, and the morning traffic piling up behind her. The Tennessee State Police recruited billboard trucks from construction sites to drive behind the chase, warning motorists not to pass the police. The morning news issued traffic reports to Nashville commuters. And Wray just kept trucking.

Reporters later asked Wray why she never pulled over. She said “I’m already on paper for ten years anyway.” So the 28-year-old decided to enjoy a 7 mph drive while adding years to her sentence and destroying an Altima she’d borrowed from her so-called friend. Finally, police had enough of Wray’s joyride and completed what might be the world’s slowest PIT maneuver. They struck the rear corner of the Altima until she spun off the road, then pulled her from the car and arrested her.

Wray has served time for a November 2023 forgery conviction, and was out on probation. It turns out she currently has an outstanding warrant for never returning a different friend’s Ford Fiesta she “borrowed” in May 2025. Now she’s facing an additional two counts of vehicle theft, five counts of evading arrest, three counts of aggravated reckless driving, two counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of vandalism, and driving on a suspended license. She’s in County Jail with a $107,000 bond.

Meanwhile, Harris is walking an hour to and from work. But she is mourning her friendship as much as her car. “Our relationship, it was good. Even though she’s been in and out of jail, our friendship…every time when she called me, I would answer her from jail, and it’s like now she’s done this to me.”