When a father got out of the SUV to go into Walmart, another man jumped in and took the father’s three sons in the back seat, according to Pennsylvania officials.
The kidnapped men called 911 and said one of them was in the vehicle with the driver who “believed he was intoxicated,” Pennsylvania State Police said in an affidavit filed on Nov. 20, the day of the incident.
The children – ages 15, 12 and 7 – asked the man to slow down or stop, but he refused to do so, according to court records. At one point, the driver caused “severe damage.”
As the 44-year-old man continued to speed away from the Gettysburg Walmart, the boys gave officers their updated locations to help them find their soldiers, officials said.
Responding troopers tried to pull over the driver while driving more than 120 mph, according to an Adams County affidavit.
Troopers impounded the crashed Toyota RAV4, but the driver refused to slow down and turn over, authorities said. One of the troopers managed to get in front of the SUV and boxed the vehicle.
“I opened the door and gave him verbal orders to come out,” one of the soldiers wrote in an affidavit. “As he did, the vehicle would roll forward until he put it into park.”
The “visibly intoxicated” driver was handcuffed, authorities said. “He had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath … and had glassy bloodshot eyes,” the trooper said.
Officers said they asked him how drunk he was, to which he replied, “Really drunk, I’ve had a lot.”
The driver said he stole the car because he ran out of gas and needed to get to Harrisburg, about 40 miles northeast of Gettysburg. He said he was heading there to buy a heroine, the record says.
The man said he heard the children in the backseat, but continued to drive anyway, authorities said.
He was charged with three counts of kidnapping, endangering the safety of a child, theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing and eluding police and three counts of DUI.
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