Deputy Arrests Pair For Theft After Owner Pursues Truck
A Spokane man and a teenage girl were arrested for stealing a truck early Thursday morning in North Spokane County.
The truck’s owner, a 40-year-old Elk-Chattaroy Road resident, chased after the truck after it was stolen.
He told a sheriff’s deputy he suspected the stolen truck was driven at speeds past 90 mph during the chase, sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan said.
Derek A. Hartle, 20, was booked into the Spokane County Jail for stealing the truck. His address was listed as 6116 N. F Road. The girl, 17, was booked into juvenile detention on the same charge, Reagan said.
The truck’s owner said he awoke to the sound of the truck starting and ran outside in time to see the pickup hitting his wood fence as it raced away at a high speed, Reagan said.
He chased the two in another car and used a cellular phone to notify deputies of the pursuit.
The owner kept up with the truck until the vehicle began to smoke, blocking his view of the road. When the smoke cleared, the owner continued on Milan Road until he found the truck abandoned. A deputy met the owner near the truck. The man told the sheriff that the keys to the pickup had been stolen in the last two weeks.
Neither the man or the deputy were able to find the suspects in the area, Reagan said.
Later, however, the deputy received a call of suspicious people at a convenience store near Highway 2 and Westwood about 4:55 a.m. The two were arrested without incident and charged with the theft, according to Reagan.
Elk man charged
A 24-year-old Elk man was arrested for residential burglary just after midnight on Wednesday after he broke into his former girlfriend’s Spokane Valley home.
The woman, 22, was on the phone with sheriff’s deputies at the time and the suspect ripped the phone cord out of the wall, she told police.
Michael C. Freeman, of 5204 Elk-To-Highway Road, was arrested without incident, taken to jail and booked on the felony, Reagan said.
Deputies responded to the home in the 8500 block of East Mission when the woman said Freeman was at her locked back door and trying to break in.
She told deputies the two had broken up earlier in the day and that she told Freeman not to come over.
Deputies found Freeman inside the living room of the home when they arrived. The woman was uninjured but Freeman had a gash on his hand, apparently from smashing a glass window in the back door, according to Reagan.
Car prowlers busted
A Deer Park man and his Clayton, Wash., cohort were arrested early Monday morning and booked into jail after they allegedly broke into a car and stole a large number of items.
Anthony L. Cerra, 23, and Donald E. Whipple, 20, were arrested for second-degree theft. Cerra gave his address as 5279 Scotts Valley Road, and Whipple gave his as 5090 Redmond Road in Clayton.
A deputy responded to the area of Highway 395 and Hatch Road about 1:45 a.m. after witnesses saw someone breaking into a car there, Reagan said.
On the way there, a deputy spotted a car matching the description of the suspects’ vehicle at a convenience store at Division and Hastings.
When the deputy searched the car he found a wallet, air compressor, tools and cassette tapes. Also, in searching Whipple, the deputy found a stolen credit card and other possible stolen items, he said.
, DataTimes