Indiana teen fugitive nabbed after 2nd high-speed chase ends in Portage crash
After two days of high-speed chases, which included an all-terrain vehicle flying out the back of a truck, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office finally caught an Indiana teenager, and he is now in jail in Portage awaiting charges including driving a stolen truck.
Andrew G. Switzer, 17, of Bloomington, was finally found by a police dog hiding in heavy foliage near the intersection of New Haven Road and Highway 16 near Wisconsin Dells after the second chase ended with a crash this morning.
The first chase started Sunday evening when Switzer was driving a 1976 Ford Ranchero with a 4-wheel drive ATV in the back. Just after 8 p.m., a Columbia County deputy was on his way to the village of Rio when an oncoming vehicle matched the description of a vehicle involved in a gas drive-off at a convenience store in the village.
The sheriff's deputy gave chase and speeds reached 90 mph as the race wound through Portage and on toward Wisconsin Dells on Highway 16. Switzer then made a series of turns on town roads and eventually turned onto Highway 127 heading toward Portage again.
"While the suspect vehicle was travelling on rough roads at speeds around 100 miles per hour the ATV in the bed of the pickup truck became airborne and bounced over the top of one of the Sheriff's patrol cars," Sheriff Dennis Richards said in a press release.
As the chase was entering Portage again the city police department put down road spikes on Highway 127 near the Columbia Correctional Institution, but Switzer apparently avoided them by going the wrong way on the off-ramp from Interstate 39 to Highway 16. Switzer narrowly missed hitting a tractor-trailer unit in that maneuver. A sheriff's deputy then rammed the Ford Ranchero, causing the truck to spin out of control and off the road into a ditch.
Switzer fled on foot and several law enforcement agencies, including some of the staff of the prison, searched the Portage Industrial Park but failed to find Switzer. That chase covered 35.5 miles and lasted for more than 27 minutes, the Sheriff said.
At about 6:30 a.m. Monday a deputy spotted a construction truck speeding along Highway 16 at almost 90 mph near Lewiston Station Road. The truck had been stolen from a construction site in Portage shortly before, and the deputy gave chase.
This time Switzer attempted to turn onto New Haven Road and failed to negotiate the corner and went into the ditch with the truck overturning. Switzer crawled out of the overturned truck and ran off again.
A sheriff's deputy with a K-9 partner tracked him down from his foliaged hiding spot, but Switzer reportedly continued to resist, suffered some injuries, and finally had to be subdued by a Taser.
After treatment at Divine Savior Hospital in Portage, he was taken to jail and awaits a court appearance Tuesday where he is likely to face several felony charges, including operating a stolen vehicle, theft charges and a bunch of traffic charges.
It turned out Switzer was wanted on warrants issued in Bloomington, Ind.
Various agencies involved in the episodes included the Columbia County Sheriff's office, the Portage Police Department, The Portage Fire Department, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Dells-Delton Ambulance Service.
