Vidor Police checking on the welfare of a teenager were led on a chase by a suspicious person through two counties that ended in Groves with the suspect disappearing Tuesday night.
Vidor Lt. Mike Sanchez said officers were dispatched to the 1900 block of Orange Street to check on the welfare of a 17-year-old. While there, one of the officers saw a maroon four-door Pontiac car parked in the vicinity of the residence they were checking.
When they went to check the driver of the Pontiac, the man appeared nervous, Sanchez said. Then when the officer asked the man to step out of the car, he fled.
Police chased the car to south Texas 105 to FM 1442 headed to Bridge City. A Bridge City officer tried to put spikes in the roadway to stop the car and, in the process, hit a vehicle.
The driver of the Pontiac traveled to Texas 87 and over the Rainbow Bridge before taking the FM 366 exit. From there the driver went through Taft, then Gulfway Drive then Duff before losing offices on Jefferson in Groves.
VPD were joined by Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies as well as Port Arthur Police.
“At that time the officers backed off,” Sanchez said, adding that they were near busy intersections.
Groves City Marshal Norman Reynolds said the department got a call of the chase coming into the city at 9:17 p.m. By 9:44 p.m. they were informed that PAPD had found the suspect’s vehicle in the 6300 block of Jefferson.
Sanchez noted the car was behind a house on Jefferson and the nearby homeowner had the car towed. But, he added, there were items in the vehicle that could help police file a case with the district attorney’s office for evading arrest.
“The car is registered to a person in the Mid-County area,” Sanchez said. “We don’t know if there is a connection with the 17-year-old welfare check.”
VPD have found the 17-year-old and are in the process of interviewing to see if he or she is related to the incident.
Sanchez gave kudos to the citizens who tried to assist the officers, not by following in the chase but by informing the officers of the whereabouts of the suspect vehicle.
“I feel in this area we are very fortunate that our citizens are willing to give us a helping hand,” he said.
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