Police pursue vehicle through Perham, Woodland and Caribou

7 years ago

CARIBOU, Maine — Police pursued an 18-year-old woman Saturday, April 8, through Perham, New Sweden, and eventually into downtown Caribou, with the chase terminating at a dead end on Paris Snow Street.

Officers apprehended the woman as she left the vehicle and tried to run into a nearby home, according to a report from Sheriff Darrell Crandall. Since the driver did not put the vehicle in park, however, it rolled into a home after she exited, damaging both the building and vehicle.

The woman resisted the efforts of Deputy Sheriff Chad Foley and others to take her into custody, but she eventually was taken for a medical evaluation to Cary Medical Center, where she remained Monday. Police are not releasing the driver’s identity as she has yet to be charged with a crime.

Criminal charges are under review, Crandall said Monday.

The chase began on Saturday shortly before 2 p.m., when Deputy Foley and a state police trooper went to a residence on the Erickson Road in Perham to handle a call about an 18-year-old woman “acting out of character and aggressive, causing family members concern for her well-being.”

According to the police report, the teen attempted to leave in a vehicle before Foley arrived. Family members removed her keys, but she took another vehicle that she allegedly was not authorized to have. When she went through an intersection on the Colby Siding Road without stopping, Foley pursued, flashing his lights and using his siren, but the woman did not pull over, the report states.

Crandall wrote that “at no time during the more-than-12-minute pursuit was the driver travelling at unusually high speeds, but she was exceeding the posted speed limit and ignoring traffic control devices.”

The sheriff’s office was assisted in the case by members of the Maine State Police, the Caribou Police Department, and an Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Warden Service.