North Dakota Man Leaves Stolen Truck On Lake…It Sinks.

The action begins very early Monday morning in the 1000 block of 4th Street Northwest in Jamestown, ND.  The rascally rabbit in the photo is alleged to have stolen a truck from the area.

This reported from Assistant Police Chief, Major Justin Blinsky by KCSi News

Blinsky reports that the incident started at 1:44 a.m., Monday when residents reported a stolen pickup. The vehicle was spotted by an individual familiar with the vehicle, being aware it had been stolen in the area of the 1000 block of 4th Street Northwest.  He fled officers in the pickup and the pursuit was  discontinued because the driver was traveling in an extremely reckless manner at high speed.

Here for me it gets interesting as everyone involved is moving around at 2 AM.  Our moms were right- nothing good can happen at 2 AM. So residents (plural) report seeing the stolen vehicle and as you already read, for safety's sake the police call off the pursuit.

Let's take it from here at The Jamestown Sun

Shortly thereafter the vehicle was spotted again headed north out of town on U.S. Highway 52 and another pursuit ensued. The vehicle turned east in the vicinity of Pelican Point and crashed, although the driver was able to continue onto the ice of Jamestown Reservoir where the vehicle came to a stop.

Now, I don't know how long "shortly thereafter" actually is...but, wouldn't you think it's within an hour or so?  It's important to keep that timeline in mind.

So now the alleged rascally rabbit is on foot and valiantly fleeing across the ice. Sweet freedom indeed.

But, wait here's more from the Major

Major Justin Blinsky says, 19 year  old Jon Schuldheisz, was arrested and taken  into custody by Jamestown Police, with the assistance of  anglers on the reservoir.

(Artist rendering of the pursuit)

This is one of my favorite parts- let's be generous and say that "shortly thereafter" could be 3 hours. Does that mean the assisting anglers were out fishing at 5 AM? What would your mom say about that?

So, the rascally rabbit is in custody and we discover that Jon is not allegedly "rascally" at all!

The Stutsman County State’s Attorney’s office has charged  19-year-old Jon Schuldheisz with eluding a peace officer, failure to halt, possession of drug paraphernalia-meth, and possession of a stolen vehicle, plus other charges.

HOW DO YOU GET BUSTED WITH A PIPE?  It's a classic "alleged addict" theme and the punchline of every story you read like this- they always refuse to dump the pipe! How many chances does a rabbit need?

The headline promises a truck in the water, so let's get to that part. Because, that part happens "a while later". Actually, more like Monday afternoon. Let's hear from the Sheriff's Department as to what happened next...

"We were pulling it off the ice and we came to a pressure ridge and down she went," he said.

Kaiser estimated the vehicle sank in between 15 and 30 feet of water near Pelican Point.

Oops...keep that in mind when you're ice fishing at 5 AM.

Or any time really.  It's been a really warm winter.

Stay dry y'all.