Evidence? What evidence?
Posted on 03/21/2008 3:32:26 PM PDT by Keith in Iowa
TOLEDO, Iowa - An Illinois man was arrested after police chased a stolen delivery van loaded with doughnuts across two Iowa counties at speeds of up to 100 mph.
The van, owned by Donut Delite, of Moline, Ill., was stolen early Thursday while the driver was making deliveries at a hospital in nearby Rock Island.
More than 100 miles later in Iowa, a Benton County sheriff's deputy spotted the van about 9:30 a.m. _ and the chase was on.
Other officers joined in, and the chase stretched into Tama County. Authorities finally cornered the van in Toledo and arrested the driver, Frank Alvarado, 46, of Moline, Ill.
"What strikes me as a bit out of the ordinary in this case is the number of officers who were able to respond," said Assistant Tama County Attorney Rich Vander May.
"I don't know whether the fact that the stolen vehicle contained doughnuts has anything to do with it," he said.
In all, nine officers joined the chase into Tama County.
Tama County Sheriff Dennis Kucera said the van was unmarked, and his officers had no idea they were chasing a doughnut van _ and didn't see the humor in it.
"I was concerned about my officers' safety because we didn't know whether the driver was armed or not," he said.
The incident began when a delivery driver arrived at the hospital and left the van running while he delivered doughnuts.
Security video footage shows Frank Alvarado, 46, of Moline, Ill., milling about Trinity Medical Hospital-West's mental health ward lobby. He then walked into a parking lot and drove off in the van.
Hospital officials said Alvarado was not listed as a patient.
"He was standing right next to the van when the doughnut guy walked into the lobby. He was watching it," said hospital security manager Jason Johnson.
Alvarado was arrested at gunpoint and charged with first-degree theft, eluding and numerous traffic violations. He was held in the Tama County jail on a $15,000 bond and met with a magistrate Friday morning, authorities said. A jail official said he was assigned a public defender, whose name wasn't immediately available.
As for the doughnuts _ the bakery donated the goods to the officers involved in the chase.
"They probably deserved it," said Sharon Wainwright, manager of Delite Donuts.
Wasn’t this a Seinfeld episode?
donut-van bump.
>>>Wasn’t this a Seinfeld episode?
Don’t know - never watched that dreck.
BS! It wasn’t stolen. They chased him for the donuts.
Some stuff just writes it’s own replies...
NEVER rob a donut vendor!
Rosie O’Donnell was seen fleeing the scene on foot, but officers on Segways quickly overtook her and ushered her into the back of a stock truck.
Of course it was...
One question seems to come to mind.If it was a high priced Corvette that was stolen,and they did not run a stop light out of town,would they have been caught?Something tells me no.
The time line seems to coincide with the real issue at hand.Do not mess with a Police persons sugar wakeup or else!He is in trouble!!
Around 30 years ago in Montgomery, Alabama, a driver stole his entire truck load of beer. They found him a week or so later at a house way in the woods. He was trying to drink it all up.
Maybe. The first thing I thought of was Newman!
I was just thinking a few days ago that “Newman” was the funniest character on “Seinfeld”, tho Kramer was close.
Evidence? What evidence?
"Pssst, hey mack. You want powdered or glazed?"
Suspect was probably a cop in disguise.
And you can imagine why all the cops were chasing it. He was stealing their lifeblood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.