Teenager steals truck, leads police on high-speed chase

 Caribou Police received a call from Ouellette’s Variety at 11:20 p.m. on March 12 that lead them on a wild ride down back roads into Washburn, ending in the apprehension of a 17-year-old male facing a number of charges from theft to littering.
     The call police received from Ouellette’s Variety was in response to a customer in a white Dodge pickup purchasing fuel and driving off without paying. The vehicle headed north on the New Sweden Road.
Officer Craig Peterson pursued the vehicle up the New Sweden Road while Officer Doug Bell checked the Ogden Road. Bell noticed a white pickup matching the vehicle description parked on a snowmobile trail and a male subject throwing trash out on to the trail.
When Bell attempted to speak with the male subject, the subject got back into the vehicle and drove away refusing to stop.
Bell pursued the vehicle across the Lombard Road and down the Old Washburn Road onto the Caribou Lake Road toward Washburn.
Bell tried to speak to the driver through his P.A. system, but the driver continued at a high rate of speed, with trash flying off the back of the truck.
Bell continued the chase, assisted by Peterson. Maine State Troopers were notified as well as Washburn police.
Bell and Peterson were assisted by Trooper Fred Thomas and Washburn Police Officer Matt Collamore.
Thomas deployed a spike strip which the driver hit slowly deflating the pickup’s front tires. The vehicle came to a stop at the side of the road near Washburn District High School.
Police apprehended the 17-year-old male.
Police found that the pickup was a stolen vehicle. The driver was charged with theft of a motor vehicle.
The driver was also charged with two counts of theft, one for the stolen gasoline from Ouellette’s Variety, and it was also discovered that the driver had stolen fuel for a snow sled earlier in the day.
The driver was also charged with eluding an officer and passing a road block – a spike strip – and also driving to endanger. The driver was also found to be under the influence of alcohol at the time adding an OUI charge, as well as a charge of operating after suspension. Lastly the driver was charged with littering. The male subject was transported to the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton awaiting a detention hearing at Caribou District Court on March 14.