Man helps police chase down girls who allegedly stole SUV
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CHUBBUCK – Keith Couch is a property appraiser.
But on Monday afternoon, the Burley man felt like a cop as he chased his daughter’s stolen 2002 Chevy Tahoe on Interstate 86 until the real police could catch up.
In the end, the two girls in the Tahoe — ages 14 and 15 — were taken into custody for allegedly stealing the vehicle and leading officers on the high-speed chase, which involved a state trooper opening fire on the SUV.
The pursuit eventually ended when the stolen Tahoe collided with a pickup near the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck. There were two shotguns and an AR-15 assault rifle in the Tahoe when it was stolen, but it does not appear that those guns were fired during the chase, according to Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen.
Nielsen said the trooper opened fire on the Tahoe because he thought the vehicle was going to hit him while he was trying to deploy spike strips to deflate its tires.
But Nielsen pointed out that the chase, as well as the trooper opening fire, are both being investigated, so new details about what happened could emerge.
The incident began to unfold around 2 p.m. Monday in Burley when Couch’s daughter and son-in-law, Emily and Cody Garrard, went to run a quick errand and returned to find their Chevy Tahoe and an attached flatbed trailer missing from their home.
The couple reported to the police that the vehicle was stolen after they found the trailer about four blocks from their residence.
Couch, who was in American Falls appraising a property, got a call from a family member about the stolen Tahoe and decided to head west on Interstate 86 in an attempt to intercept the stolen vehicle if it was headed in his direction.
It didn’t take long for Couch to spot the Tahoe heading eastbound at a very high rate of speed. He turned around and gave chase.
Couch said he floored his pickup’s accelerator and was traveling 99 mph around 3:45 p.m. when he pulled up alongside the Tahoe on the interstate and motioned for the teenage driver to pull over.
“The driver gave me the middle finger and that really made me mad,” Couch said.
Couch then dialed 911 on his cell phone and told the emergency dispatcher who picked up that he was in pursuit of a stolen vehicle.
Police from Pocatello and Chubbuck, sheriff’s deputies from Power and Bannock counties and Idaho State Police eventually joined the high-speed pursuit, which continued on Interstate 86 until just outside of Pocatello.
The teenage girl driving the stolen Tahoe exited the interstate at the Highway 30 interchange near the Simplot plant.
Nielsen said a state trooper was waiting on Highway 30 ready to deploy spike strips to disable the Tahoe. When the trooper, who was outside his police car, believed the Tahoe was attempting to hit him, he opened fire on the vehicle in self-defense, Nielsen said. Neither of the teenage girls in the Tahoe were struck by the gunfire.
The Tahoe continued on Highway 30 and then turned onto Pole Line Road.
At this point Couch says that he and about 15 police vehicles were chasing the stolen Tahoe and the pursuit briefly entered some residential neighborhoods off Pole Line.
The Tahoe eventually re-emerged onto Pole Line around 4:30 p.m. and tried to speed through traffic at that road’s intersection with Yellowstone Avenue on the Pocatello-Chubbuck border near Pine Ridge Mall. But the chase came to a crashing halt when the Tahoe collided with a Ford pickup at the intersection.
The two girls in the stolen Tahoe were taken into custody by police for allegedly stealing the vehicle and leading officers on the high-speed chase. Neither the teenage girls nor the occupants of the pickup they smashed into were injured, but both vehicles were heavily damaged.
The actions of the trooper who opened fire are being investigated by the East Idaho Critical Incident Team — a multi-law enforcement agency task force that investigates incidents in which police fire their weapons to determine if officers acted properly.
Couch said he’s glad the chase ended without anyone getting hurt and he was happy to do his part to help the police.
His son-in-law’s guns were still in the Tahoe when it crashed and were recovered.
Authorities are not yet commenting on exactly what charges the two girls will be facing.
This article was first published with the Idaho State Journal. It is used here with permission.