CLEARLAKE — According to CHP Officer Kevin Domby, a tip from an observant and concerned citizen on Monday led CHP Officer Mark Crutcher to a stolen Chevrolet pickup.
The 2003 pickup was stolen from a repair shop in Ukiah by a 17-year-old male who had run away from a school for troubled youth on Sunday. Domby said the juvenile had stolen the pickup in order to return to his home in Clearlake Oaks.
Officer Crutcher spotted the vehicle around 9:30 a.m. Monday and a short pursuit ensued. Unable to evade Crutcher, the teen stopped the vehicle and fled on foot.
Responding CHP and Lake County Sheriff”s units set up a perimeter and the juvenile male was arrested a short time later.
Upon arrest the male resisted and had to be restrained for his own safety. He was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital where he has since been released to mental health officials for observation.
CHP investigators learned that there were also two girls, ages 10 and 12, missing from the same school and that they had been in the stolen vehicle with the male juvenile. After an extensive search was launched for the missing girls, CHP investigators, working with Lake County Sheriff”s Deputy Ed Bean, discovered that the runaway girls were possibly on a Lake County Transit Bus.
A short time later, with the help of the Lakeport Police Department”s Officer Destry Henderson, CHP investigators located the girls at a bus stop in Lakeport.
“I got dispatched to the Third Street bus stop on Main Street to search for the missing juveniles and found them,” Henderson said. “The CHP pulled up within minutes of me arriving.”
Henderson said he arrived on the scene at approximately 2:45 p.m. and the girls were trying to board a bus traveling back to Ukiah and scheduled to arrive at 3 p.m. The girls were unharmed and CHP returned them to school officials.
Contact Cynthia Davis at cdavis@record-bee.com.
