VAN BUREN COUNTY, Mich. – Several different deputies chased a man through two different counties after he stole a farmer’s pick-up truck, broke into Amtrak and stole a service vehicle and rammed into numerous vehicles.
Deputies responded to a complaint a little after 6 p.m. Friday when a 1994 Ford F250 flat-bed work truck was stolen in the 33,000 block of 96th Avenue in Porter Township. The 39-year-old man from Hartford stole the vehicle from a field worker who was tending to his crops in the area.
A Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol deputy who was driving on the M-40 highway in Almena Township saw a different vehicle , a white pick-up truck, ram into another vehicle, causing it to roll over several times. The deputy tended to the victim who sustained minor injuries and refused medical attention.
Deputies radioed the incident to the Van Buren Central Dispatch and learned that the crash scene involving the pick-up truck matched the description of an earlier stolen Amtrak service vehicle from Lawton. The man had earlier broke into the Amtrak building and stole the keys to the vehicle. Officers say the truck rammed two different vehicles on M-40.
Deputies put out an area broadcast to police agencies to keep a look-out for the vehicle. Central Dispatch received even more complaints near the City of Bangor of that same truck running vehicles off the road on M-43. Hartford Police tried initiating a traffic stop, but the man took off into areas of Western Van Buren and North Eastern Berrien County.
Several officers attempted to pursue the suspect, until his truck got caught in the mud in a blueberry field along County Road 376 and 703 in Covert Township.
Officers arrested the man and transported him to the Berrien County Jail. He now faces numerous felony charges including two separate accounts of felonious assault with a vehicle, multiple fleeing and eluding police counts, operating while intoxicated by drugs, breaking and entering into a government building, two counts of stolen vehicle, and other pending charges.
The case is now being handled by the Van Buren County Prosecutor’s Office.
