By Joshua Benton
Blade Staff Writer
Page 11
WAUSEON — A Milwaukee man led state troopers on a chase across Fulton County Saturday night, hijacking one vehicle and trying to hijack four more, the Ohio Highway Patrol said.
The chase began about 6:30 p.m., about three miles west of the Ohio Turnpike’s Wauseon exit. A trooper clocked an eastbound car driven by Arthur Hayse, 27, at 105 mph and tried to pull it over.
Mr. Hayse kept going, however, until he reached the exit, authorities said. He lost control on the off ramp, hitting a light pole and sending his car into a ditch.
Unfortunately for the pursuing trooper, the light pole fell across the off ramp, blocking the path in front of her car.
According to troopers, Mr. Hayse got out of his car, walked up to a nearby pickup truck and produced a 25-caliber semiautomatic pistol. He demanded that the truck’s driver and passenger turn over the keys. They did, and Mr. Hayse drove off, southbound on State Rt. 108, troopers said.
While being pursued just north of the Wauseon city limits, he abandoned the pickup in a parking lot and hijacked another pickup.
It stalled, and he was forced to run from it.
He reached the intersection of State Rt. 108 and U.S. 20A and tried to hijack three more vehicles there, troopers said, before he was captured. Troopers found a small amount of marijuana on him.
Mr. Hayse was at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio last night. He faces charges of felony fleeing, carrying a concealed weapon, speeding, driving without a license, drug abuse, and drug paraphernalia. The FBI was considering federal car jack ing charges, troopers said.
The lamppost was cleared from the exit ramp 20 minutes later.