Home Depot shoplifter leads police on 10 mile pursuit
Placer County CA March 19 2018 A Folsom man is facing charges of shoplifting and evading law enforcement after a tool theft from North Auburn’s Home Depot led to a wild car chase that ended when it crashed through a fence into a Newcastle home’s front yard, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Stephen Daniel Crawford was arrested at Wednesday’s crash scene in Newcastle and spent a day behind bars before being released Thursday. A photo released by the Sheriff’s Office shows a banged up sedan behind a fence next to a house, with oranges from a nearby tree knocked onto the ground.
Crawford, 19, was reported by staff to be stealing power tools from the North Auburn home improvement store at 7:10 p.m. on Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Employees supplied dispatchers with vehicle and suspect descriptions, and deputies were able to quickly locate the suspect car a short distance away from the store, on Highway 49 near Luther Road in North Auburn.
Deputies attempted to get the driver to pull the car over to the side of the highway but the suspect took off, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The vehicle pursuit continued through Auburn to Interstate 80 and then toward Newcastle, where the suspect exited.
After an estimated 10 miles of driving with a law-enforcement tail, the suspect ended up crashing the car through a fence and into the yard of a home. He sustained minor injuries and was medically checked at a hospital before being booked into the Placer County Jail, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
