May 22, 2008)—A 13-year-old Central Texas boy was in juvenile custody Thursday after stealing two vehicles, wrecking one of them and then leading police on a low-speed chase through a Waco neighborhood that ended when the stolen SUV he was driving hit a Coca Cola delivery truck.
The two-county crime spree started Thursday morning in Marlin where the teenager stole a passenger car after breaking into a house and stealing the resident’s purse and keys.
He headed toward Waco on Highway 6.
“He drove it to Riesel to the Cefco station where he attempted to buy gas, but he was unable to use her credit cards,” Riesel Police Chief Danny Krumnow said.
So the 13-year-old filled up and took off without paying, drove through a stop sign and into the side of an SUV, which ended up upside down.
Both of the occupants, a woman who is two-and-a-half months pregnant and her fiancée, were taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.
The stolen car was too heavily damaged to drive, but somehow the teenager next turned up in Mart.
Police aren’t yet sure how he got there, but what they do know is that he stole a Ford Expedition from in front of a store and again headed toward Waco where officers, alerted to the theft, spotted the stolen SUV.
Officers gave chase in a pursuit that never got much above speeds of 30 miles per hour through a residential neighborhood off Orchard Lane.
The teen was arrested after the SUV bumped into the delivery truck at the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and the Interstate 35 access road.
"I'm shocked that we're sitting here talking about having him; taking a ride to TYC and not to the emergency room,” said Scott Curry of the Mart Police Department.
“I mean we're talking about an SUV, he doesn't know how to handle a vehicle like that," Curry said.
(Adam Fox contributed to this story)