Two men were arrested last week for suspicion of looting after leading officers on a high-speed chase in the midst of the wildfires raging in Oregon. Around 10:15 a.m. on Thursday morning, authorities received a report of a suspicious van in Detroit, a town that had been evacuated because of wildfires.
Two men arrested for looting during Oregon wildfires
by David MatthewsTwo men were arrested last week for suspicion of looting after leading officers on a high-speed chase in the midst of the wildfires raging in Oregon.
Around 10:15 a.m. on Thursday morning, authorities received a report of a suspicious van in Detroit, a town that had been evacuated because of wildfires.
A fire crew reported seeing the same vehicle in another town.
Oregon State Police and two different sheriff’s departments pursued the van which entered and exited a highway and even drove through a golf course while trying to evade its pursuers.
Two suspects, later identified as 21-year-old Anthony Travis Bodda and 36-year-old Alexander Justin Jones, abandoned the van after hitting spike strips and attempted to flee on foot. The two were tracked down by police dogs and arrested.
Several items in the pair’s van are believed to have been stolen.
“I am disappointed that while in a state of emergency these people would victimize members of our community,” Marion County Sheriff Joe Kast said in a statement. “The women and men of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office are committed to holding people accountable if they chose to victimize residents from our evacuated areas.”
Bodda and Jones have been charged with with attempted theft in the first degree, burglary in the second degree, felony elude, attempted misdemeanor elude, reckless driving, interfering with a peace officer, possession of a burglary tool, reckless endangering, criminal mischief in the first degree and criminal trespass in the second degree.