A 47-year-old Fenton man and a 36-year-old Festus woman were arrested Tuesday (July 30) after they allegedly stole a pickup and led Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a high-speed chase that ended in Barnhart, Capt. Gary Higginbotham said.
The Sheriff’s Office got a report that a man and woman took a 1998 Chevrolet pickup that was for sale for a test drive but did not return to the seller’s home in the 4000 block of Carrol Park Road in High Ridge, the report said.
At 1:34 p.m., a deputy spotted a Chevrolet pickup matching the description of the stolen one pull into the parking lot of a Dollar General store at 5697 Old Hwy. 21 in Otto. The male suspect reportedly was driving the pickup, and the female suspect was in the passenger seat. The deputy turned on the lights in the patrol vehicle, but the driver allegedly fled the parking lot, according to the report.
The deputy temporarily lost sight of the pickup but then saw it turn from Hwy. 21 onto Hwy. M and continued the pursuit. The driver lost control of the pickup while trying to turn from Hwy. M onto Moss Hollow Road in Barnhart, and the vehicle went into a ditch at the intersection, the report said.
The man allegedly tried to run away, but after a short chase on foot, he was arrested without further incident, according to the report.
In the meantime, the woman reportedly moved into the driver’s seat and was able to drive the pickup out of the ditch and took off, with only two inflated tires, on Moss Hollow Road. She eventually lost control of the pickup near Whitetail Estates Drive in Barnhart, driving through a field and hitting a drainage ditch before landing in someone’s backyard, the report said.
Then, the woman allegedly tried to run away, but after a short chase on foot, she was arrested, according to the report.
The two were taken to the Sheriff’s Office, where they were booked and later released pending application for warrants. The Sheriff’s Office will seek felony charges against the man and woman through the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, property damage and resisting arrest by flight, Higginbotham said.