Slowest Police Chase in Pa. History
— -- B E T H L E HE M, Pa. — Officers say it was the slowest police chase in Pennsylvania history.
An off-duty officer in an unmarked police car spotted Mark Wenrich, 30, as he cruised down the shoulder of a busy road early Monday morning. The suspect was riding a todder's Fisher Price Power Wheels car.
"I saw this adult male riding one of these Power Wheels," said the officer, Investigator Jeff Mouer.
"He was holding his head with his left hand like he's bored."
Mouer followed Wenrich for several blocks, flashing his badge and telling him to pull over. He also called for a squad car to come to the scene.
Wenrich responded gunning the accelerator on the battery-powered toy, Mouer said, in a doomed attempt to get away.
"He bore down like he was going to go faster on this thing," he said.
"So I got out of the car and identified myself again," Mouer continued. "I actually had to jog up to him," he said before revising his statement, calling it a "fast walk."
The 180-pound, 5-foot 8-inch man reeked of alcohol as he sat on the tiny vehicle, Mouer said. He told the officer he was going to his uncle's house.
Wenrich was arrested and later charged with public drunkenness. Police later learned that the toy car had gone missing from the home of a friend of Wenrich, five miles away from the spot he was caught. They weren't sure he'd ridden it the whole way, but they wouldn't rule the possibility out.
"It might have went that far," Mouer said. "It's possible. Who knows?"
Sorry Excuse for a Robbery
A T A S C A D E R O, Calif. — First Nicholas Larson stole an empty cash register, police say. Then he was arrested after calling authorities to apologize.
Larson, 21, allegedly raced into the Bonnema Brewing Co. last Monday, grabbed a cash register and ran out to his friend's pickup truck, apparently without informing his companions of his plans, said Sgt. Kim Treece.
"The other people he went to the bar with had no idea," Treece said. "All of a sudden he ran out with a cash register and told them to go."
