By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
A car belonging to a Hays woman that was involved in an incident Friday was reported stolen Monday and also located by a traffic/tag reader camera on Monday before disappearing into a cloud of dust on a Saline County road west of Salina.
Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said this morning that at 3 a.m. on Friday, a 2006 Dodge Magnum owned by Jennie Bettes, 50, of Hays, was stopped by an officer of the Salina Police Department. Two people in the vehicle, including the driver, who was Bettes' son, were arrested, Soldan said, however, he did not know what the requested charges were for either person. Bettes was not in the car at the time of the stop.
When the arrests were made, the keys to the car were given to the third person in the car, Soldan said. He explained that in such situations, a driver is given the choice of having the vehicle towed or having someone he or she knows drive the vehicle from the scene.
In this instance, the Magnum wasn't seen for several days and was reported stolen by Bettes to the Saline County Sheriff's Office on Monday. Soldan said the person who was given the keys to the car cannot be found and does not answer his cellphone.
After the car was reported stolen, an officer was looking for it in the Salina Police Department's new Flock traffic/tag reader camera system. The officer noticed that the car appeared in the area of W. Crawford Street and Centennial Road throughout the day, Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester said this morning.
Late Monday night, a patrol officer got behind the car near the intersection of Viemont Avenue and Beverly Drive and attempted to conduct a traffic stop in the 1600 block of Beverly Drive. Forrester said the officer exited his vehicle and ordered the driver of the Magnum to do the same. Instead, the car sped off southbound on Beverly and a pursuit began.
Forrester said that during the pursuit, speeds reached approximately 100 mph.
The pursuit went west on W. Crawford Street, and the car blew through the stop sign at Kansas Highway 140. It then went west on K-140 and then north on S. Hohneck Road.
Forrester said that due to the dust, the officer lost sight of the Magnum and terminated the pursuit.