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FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) – A police chase over a stolen vehicle ends with the suspect driving into a telephone pole at the corner of Main Street and Leesburg Road.
Around 6:00 a.m. Friday, Monica Lemus and her mother awoke to find two of their vehicles missing from their Wayne Trace driveway. By 6:15 a.m., they reported their red Honda and maroon Chevy Silverado stolen to the Fort Wayne Police Department.
Then, according to FWPD, the pick-up truck was spotted by Allen County Parking Control in the Allen County parking lot west of the Allen County Jail in the 400 block of South Calhoun Street around 10:35 a.m. After running the license plate, parking control called Fort Wayne police to alert them to the truck.
Police say they then called Lemus and asked that she meet them at the corner of Superior Street and Calhoun Street to pick up her truck. Police say many stolen vehicles found abandoned are towed, but in this case, the owner, Lemus, would be able to pick it up.
According to Chief Rusty York, as the officer and Lemus were meeting at the corner of Superior Street and Calhoun Street, parking control called police to alert them that the suspect was getting into the truck and was leaving the parking lot.
Police say that is when they began following the suspect in the stolen vehicle. According to police, they did not want to attempt a traffic stop in the downtown area of Fort Wayne because of heavy pedestrian traffic. Once the driver made it the corner of Berry Street and Broadway, police sounded their sirens and turned on their lights.
From there, police say the chase ensued down Main Street where Chief York tells Indiana’s NewsCenter that police called off the chase as they approached the viaduct at Main Street and Leesburg Road. After driving under the viaduct, police found the car smashed into a telephone pole. Chief York says speeds could have reached 60 mph during the chase.
Kevin Delucenay, who lives yards from the crash, says he heard sirens before hearing the truck smash into the pole.
“Seen a guy laying outside of a truck that obviously had hit a pole, and there was a telephone pole laying on top of him. He was trying to get the telephone pole off and the police were surrounding him with guns drawn telling him not to move because of the wire that was across him,” he says.
Police say the suspect is in the hospital in serious condition with non-life threatening injuries. Charges are pending.
The Lemus’ red Honda has not yet been recovered.
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