COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The wide Ohio River ended the flight of a teenage couple authorities accuse of a crime spree crossing into three states.
A West Virginia State Police report released Sunday says the 16-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl jumped into the river in Tyler County on Saturday while fleeing authorities. They turned back when they realized they couldn’t swim across.
The capture ended a six-day ordeal that authorities say involved at least two stolen vehicles, the theft of ammunition from an Ohio Wal-Mart, an armed robbery and injuries to a Pennsylvania police officer.
The teens are from the northwest Ohio communities of Upper Sandusky and Sycamore. They are being held without bond in a juvenile detention facility in Wheeling on charges of possession of stolen property and damaging property while fleeing police.
A western Pennsylvania police officer dragged by a truck believed to have been driven by the two says he hopes to find two women who helped him afterward.
Officer Jason Shallenberger of the Elizabeth Township police force in Allegheny County told WTAE-TV that he responded to a robbery call Thursday at a mini-mart and tried to grab the truck’s door handle. But said the driver hit the gas, and he had to hold onto the truck bed to avoid being pulled under the tires.
Left with cuts and road rash, he said two women stopped and drove him back to his patrol vehicle — and he’d like to find them and thank them.