WILTON – The apparent joy ride of a 14-year-old from Peru ended after a Wilton police officer threw down a spike mat that flattened the car’s tires on Route 2 in Wilton late Sunday, police said.
When Dixfield police officer Jeffrey A. Howe was patrolling, he observed two drivers stopped at an intersection on Canton Point Road talking, said Dixfield Police Chief Richard A. Pickett. He was going to tell them to move along, Pickett said, but the vehicles took off up Common Road.
At the intersection of Common Road and Route 2, one of the drivers, in a silver Chevrolet Cavalier, took off at a high rate of speed toward Wilton, Pickett said.
When Howe activated his lights and siren, the vehicle accelerated, he said.
The vehicle continued 12 miles to a roadblock at the intersection of Route 2 and Munson Road, where acting Wilton Police Chief Ed Leahy had the spike mat waiting.
As soon as the vehicle ran over the mat, the two front tires deflated immediately, Leahy said. All four tires eventually flattened, both Leahy and Pickett said. The right front tire had 10 spikes in it, according to Leahy.
The vehicle stopped north of the Big Apple store, where Dixfield police took into custody the 14-year-old driver from Peru and a passenger, 17, Pickett said.
The driver was charged with eluding, passing a police roadblock and operating without a license, Pickett said. No charges have brought against the passenger, he said.
The driver was released into a parent’s custody, the chief said.
Leahy said the tires went flat so quickly because the right front tire had 10 spikes in it.
This is the second time, Leahy said, that he has used a spike mat to nab an underage operator who didn’t stop for police and was traveling at a high rate of speed.
The Wilton chief said he would be bringing the case to the Franklin County district attorney for possible other charges.
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