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Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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The Badger Herald

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Officer hitches ride in hot pursuit of shoe thieves

Suspect allegedly commandeered an occupied van in an attempt to escape
Officer+hitches+ride+in+hot+pursuit+of+shoe+thieves
Jason Chan

Police thwarted two teenagers’ attempts to steal shoes from East Towne Mall after a lengthy chase where an officer hitched a ride in a pickup truck to detain the suspect, who borrowed an occupied car as an escape vehicle.

The suspects, 17-year-old Bobby Clayton and 17-year-old Edward Curtis Jr., were arrested on various charges including false imprisonment, operating a motor vehicle without consent, retail theft and resisting.

 

According to a Madison Police Department incident report:

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Saturday afternoon, two teens ran into an officer enjoying a seasonal coffee outside of East Towne Mall, and one said “whoa” before the two scurried away. Soon after, a mall employee exited the building, pointed at the two teenagers and said they had stolen shoes.

The officer gave pursuit, but by this time the thieves had already gained a significant lead. After four minutes the officer became tired. But fortune was on this officer’s side.

Two women in a pickup truck offered to give the officer a ride. After narrowing the gap between him and the thieves, the lawman resumed the chase on foot with the women cheering behind him.

The officer was able to chase one of the thieves, but lost sight of the second teen.

The suspect entered a parked van that had its engine running and drove away, but the young motorist quickly realized he was not alone.

There was a woman sitting in the back of the car waiting for her family to return. At at first, she believed the driver to be her son but upon closer inspection discovered this was not the case. She began to yell at the suspect in Spanish telling him to get out or she would call her husband.

The woman punctuated her speech with blows to the suspect’s arm as he accelerated away. The suspect, likely surprised by the woman’s presence, parked the van near a storefront at the mall before entering an employees’ only area.

The officer went with an employee to check the store’s surveillance tapes and discovered the suspect in the same room as the security camera monitors.

The officer was unable to locate the two good samaritans to thank them.

MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said the scene sergeant hopes to give the two a department award.

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