Whitley Man Allegedly Steals State Trooper's Car

A Whitley County man allegedly stole a State Police cruiser yesterday, while the trooper the car belonged to was chasing the suspect on foot. Once the suspect was in the squad car, he allegedly drove it from southeast of Columbia City to Fort Wayne, where city police spotted it near Jefferson Pointe Shopping Center. They chased the suspect in the trooper’s car to I-69. They arrested him there when construction traffic slowed him down. This morning, the 22-year-old Whitley County man is in the Whitley County Jail on a variety of charges. Police say the reason the trooper started chasing him in the first place is that the suspect was wanted on arrest warrants from DeKalb and Steuben Counties. Police say the whole chase lasted about half an hour and no police cars were damaged.