Alleged thieves crashed this stolen car into a telephone pole on Willow Street Pike early this morning.
The first alert resident called police at 3:54 a.m. today, saying that thieves were breaking into cars in his Willow Street neighborhood.
Over the next 15 minutes, there was a brief police pursuit, two sideswiped cars, a dramatic wreck involving a stolen Ford and a telephone pole — and finally a near escape on foot.
The operative word here is near.
Cops nabbed two teens and one adult man from Lancaster they believe looted iPods, cell phones, GPS units and cash from several cars and garages in the Hayward Heath neighborhood early this morning.
"They're just a couple of goofballs taking stuff out of cars and got caught," said West Lampeter Township Detective Jere Schuler.
Police charged Matthew Schweers, 20, of 2 Grafton Circle, and two minors with receiving stolen property. They were investigating further charges against the trio today.
Schuler said they broke into several cars and garages in the neighborhood just east of Route 272 and south of Penn Grant Road overnight and ripped off hundreds of dollars worth of electronic gear.
Map of break-ins, pursuit and arrests
Schweers is already on probation for an April conviction on drug charges, court records show.
The phone call to police just before 4 a.m. triggered the series of events.
Within minutes, Southern Regional Police Officer John Michener spotted two vehicles at the intersection of Willow Street Pike and Baumgardner Road, near Hayward Heath. He decided to keep an eye on them.
But just as he started to follow them north, the driver of the lead car — a red 2007 Ford Focus stolen about an hour before — floored it. He sped off and eventually swiped two cars and crashed head-on into a telephone pole in the parking lot of Jim's Towing station a half-mile north, at 2849 Willow Street Pike.
The driver and passenger — police did not say whether Schweers was the one behind the wheel — fled on foot, but were picked up a short time later about 2 miles north of the crash. They were walking north on Willow Street Pike at Beaver Valley Pike. Neither appeared to be injured from the crash, and both declined treatment.
The driver of the second car did not try to flee. He pulled over when West Lampeter Township Police Officer Dave Covey caught him. In the back was a stash of electronic gear, Schuler said.
It is unclear how many victims there are because some probably were not aware they had been ripped off as of this morning, the detective said. Police will get a better handle when they start reporting the break-ins later today.
The Ford Focus was stolen from Joe Darrenkamp's driveway about 3½ miles north. It belonged to his daughter, a senior at Lampeter-Strasburg High School.
"The police called around 4 in the morning and asked, 'Do you have a Ford Focus?' I said yes. They asked, 'Do you know where it's at?' Well, we're hoping it's in the driveway," Darrenkamp said today.
"It was actually wrapped around a telephone pole," said Darrenkamp, an owner of Darrenkamp's Food Market at Willow Valley. "It's pretty totaled.
"My daughter's pretty distraught. She bought it less than a year ago. She thought she was really living," Darrenkamp said. "Now she'll have to get the bicycle out."
Staff writer Tom Murse can be reached at tmurse@LNPnews.com or 481-6021.
