COLUMBUS, Ind. – A Dearborn County man was taken into custody by the Columbus Police Department (CPD) after he reportedly stole a vehicle from a Columbus gas station on Monday evening.
Officers responded to the 1600 block of Central Avenue at 6 p.m. and spoke to the SUV’s owner who told them someone had stolen his unlocked car from the parking lot. The keys had been left inside the center console.
A Bartholomew County Sheriff’s deputy spotted the SUV a short time later at a west side Columbus gas station. The driver fled from the deputy, struck a fence, drove into a nearby field, and temporarily escaped.
The suspect, Dustin W. Cothron, 28, of Greendale, Indiana, eventually returned with the stolen vehicle to the original gas station in the 1600 block of Central Avenue. An off-duty CPD officer observed the would-be thief and the stolen vehicle and detained him until on-duty officers could arrive.
Cothron was arrested, taken to Columbus Regional Health for medical clearance, and then to the Bartholomew County Jail. He was charged with theft of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, operating a vehicle as a habitual traffic violator, and resisting law enforcement.
