Authorities in Pennsylvania said the father was getting out of the SUV and entering a Walmart when another man jumped in and took off with the father’s three boys in the back seat.
The abducted boys called 911, one of whom said he was in a car with a driver who “suspected himself to be intoxicated,” Pennsylvania state police said on Nov. 20, the date of the incident. said in an affidavit filed today.
According to court records, children aged 15, 12 and 7 begged the man to slow down or stop, but the man refused. At one point the driver hit a curb causing “significant damage”.
As the 44-year-old man continued to speed away from a Walmart in Gettysburg, the children provided authorities with the latest location to help police locate them.
According to an affidavit filed with Adams County, responding officers headed in their direction and attempted to catch up while driving at over 120 mph.
Police caught up with a Toyota RAV4 that had the hazards activated, but the driver refused to slow down or give way, officials said. One of his police officers was then able to get in front of his SUV and box up the vehicle.
“I opened the door and verbally told him to get out,” one of the police officers wrote in the affidavit. “As he did, the vehicle kept moving forward until he parked. .”
Authorities said the driver was apparently intoxicated and was handcuffed. The trooper said, “His breath smelled of strong alcoholic beverages, and his eyes were bloodshot as glass.”
Authorities asked him how drunk he was.
The driver admitted to stealing the car because it ran out of gas and needed to go to Harrisburg, about 40 miles northeast of Gettysburg, according to court records. According to the records, he was going to buy a heroine.
The man also said he heard children in the back seat but continued driving anyway, officials said.
He was charged with three counts of kidnapping, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, theft of a motor vehicle, running and fleeing from a police officer, and drunken driving.
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