WALDPORT – They’ve vanished, apparently.
Three suspects in the theft of two Ford F-250 trucks eluded police after a high-speed chase from Newport to east of Waldport on Sunday.
The suspects – either three men or two men and a woman – were last seen Sunday afternoon by fishermen running through Don Lindly Park, seven miles east of Waldport, after ditching a 2003 gray Ford F250, said Lincoln County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Dunteman. On Wednesday, Dunteman said there was no one in custody and no reports from residents along the Alsea River of suspicious activity.
The chase started Sunday afternoon when police in Newport were notified that the truck – with a washing machine in its bed – had been reported stolen in Lincoln City. Dunteman spotted the vehicle head south on U.S. Highway 101 at 2:53 p.m. near the Best Western Agate Beach Motel in Newport and alerted other deputies and Newport police.
Deputies attempted to stop the truck but it looped through the Walmart parking lot and raced south on Highway 101 through Newport.
In a news release, the sheriff’s office said deputies did not realize there was another vehicle – a dark blue 2000 Ford F250 reported stolen Saturday in Salem — caravanning with the gray truck.
Deputies set out spike strips at the intersection of Highway 101 and Olive Street in Newport, disabling the blue truck, the sheriff’s office said. The gray truck avoided the strips and both vehicles continued speeding south over the Yaquina Bay Bridge with police in pursuit.
Newport police found the blue F-250 abandoned in the middle of the highway adjacent to Newport Toyota. But its driver was picked up by the gray F-250, which continued south at speeds ranging from 80-100 miles per hour, the sheriff’s office said.
Newport officers found a large amount of ammunition inside the blue truck and warned officers that the suspects could be armed, the sheriff’s office said. The pursuit continued through South Beach before Newport police ended their chase because of the gray truck was passing vehicles at 80-100 mph, causing traffic in both lanes to swerve to avoid a crash, the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff’s deputies continued pursuing the truck at 90-100 mph through the Ona Beach area and into Seal Rock, where they said it began swerving side to side across both lanes of the highway. Deputies ended their pursuit just north of Beachside State Park because of the threat to others on the highway, the sheriff’s office said.
The chase had gone 13 miles.
Minutes later deputies were notified by citizens in the Waldport area that the gray F-250 was driving recklessly and at high speeds through Waldport and east on Oregon Highway 34.
Dunteman located the stolen gray F-250 parked and unoccupied at Don Lindly Park at 3:50 p.m. Nearby fishermen told deputies they saw three occupants flee on foot into the park 30 minutes earlier.