A car left unlocked and with its engine running while the driver went inside a fast food restaurant resulted in a chase through parts of two counties and landed an Elizabethtown man in Bladen County Jail.
Xavier Tamaree White, 18, of the 100 block of Timberhaven Drive, has been charged with larceny of a motor vehicle and possession of a stolen vehicle, both felonies, and traffic violations. His bail was set at $50,000.
The incident took place Wednesday about 11:30 p.m. when the driver of a 2007 Pontiac Torrent went inside McDonald’s on South Poplar Street, according to Elizabethtown Police Chief Bobby Kinlaw. The driver had left the vehicle unlocked and the engine running.
A few minutes after the vehicle had been reported stolen, Elizabethtown police Lt. Dwayne Cheshire spotted it on N.C. 87 Bypass and attempted to stop it, Kinlaw said. The driver of the vehicle continued traveling on N.C. 87, then turned onto N.C. 41 headed toward Lumberton, Kinlaw said. N.C. Highway Patrol troopers joined in the pursuit and deployed stop sticks just inside the Lumberton city limits, Kinlaw said. The vehicle was disabled and the suspect was taken into custody.
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