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Burglars elude authorities in dump truck during two-county crime spree

By Tara Fasol, The Southern

Monday, October 8, 2007 10:37 PM CDT

MOUNT VERNON - An ongoing investigation into a vehicle theft more than 350 miles away is now being connected to a string of burglaries and other crimes in Southern Illinois.

Mount Vernon Police Chief Chris Mendenall said two restaurants were burglarized late Friday night and early Saturday morning.

Mendenall said area police are looking for two suspects who are thought to be armed and dangerous and connected with the theft of a vehicle in Fairfield, Iowa.

Reports came in to the Mount Vernon Police Department of a burglary at Long John Silver's Friday at about midnight. During routine patrols more than an hour later, the vehicle reported stolen in Iowa was located by a Mount Vernon police officer outside the Bob Evans restaurant.

A high risk team was sent in to clear the area after several hours of surveillance and found that the suspects had fled.

Mendenall said no contact was ever made with the suspects, but it is believed they stole a dump truck from a construction site relatively close to Bob Evans.

"I think it was recovered down in Perry County," he said about the dump truck.

A release from the Perry County Sheriff's Department said a 911 call was received from Casey's General Store in Tamaroa at about 3:27 a.m. Saturday.

The caller told police she was inside the store working when a man broke out a window and entered the facility. The subject then left the store and fled in a dump truck traveling southbound on U.S. 51.

Perry County deputies located the truck and attempted to stop the vehicle. The dump truck then left the roadway on Illinois 154 and proceeded through the Red Hawk Country Club, drove through a corn field, ran over a chain link fence and jumped a railroad track before returning to the highway.

A short time later, police located the truck at a private home northeast of Pinckneyville; the suspects apparently stole a vehicle from that residence and fled before police arrived.

Perry County officials are asking the public to keep a lookout for the suspects, described as two white men in their 20s, or the vehicle they are believed to have stolen - a tan or pewter-colored 2001 Chevrolet Suburban with Illinois registration MAXFAM 4.

Anyone with information on the men or vehicle is asked to contact the Mount Vernon Police Department at 242-2727 or the Perry County Sheriff's Department at 357-5212.

tara.fasol@thesouthern.com / 351-5824