'It's Pretty Sad': Building Featured In 'The Outsiders' Film Damaged After Pursuit, Crash In Sperry

A building in Sperry has been hit for the second time in two years after a driver crashed through the wall while running from police. People in Sperry say the building is a popular place because part of the movie, The Outsiders was filmed there.

Friday, March 29th 2024, 5:33 pm

By: Jordan Tidwell

SPERRY, Okla. -

A building in Sperry has been hit for the second time in two years after a driver crashed through the wall while running from police.

Police say while the man was running, he also was shooting at officers.

People in Sperry say this is a popular place because part of the movie, The Outsiders was filmed here.

They say it stinks they have to through this again.

"The early scene in The Outsiders was shot here, almost to the day in 1982," said Gary Coulson.

Tulsa Police say officers tried to pull over Steven Ballard for driving a stolen car but he took off and started shooting at the officers.

Police say Ballard crashed into the building in Sperry and ran off, but officers caught him.

There's now a giant hole in the wall and bricks are all over the ground.

"The wall you can see, the alleyway is very pertinent to The Outsiders. We're going to try and save that wall, and here we are again trying to save it for a second time," Coulson said.

The first wreck was in March of 2022 when officers say a driver was speeding down Main Street, lost control and crashed into the building. The building caught fire and collapsed, killing the driver.

"When you pull off of Highway 11 onto Main Street, if you just run straight into a building, that's the building you run into," Coulson said.

Coulson says people in town plan to do all they can to save the building.

"It's pretty sad, it's sad we have people who will hop in a vehicle and do this sort of thing, I think education is something we're not really doing well with here in the United States," Coulson said.

Court records show Ballard has previous convictions for burglary, and concealing stolen property and has a current charge of making a bomb threat.

An arrest warrant was issued in that case a few weeks ago.