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The incident took place around 7:34 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 24, when Westport Police dispatch received a complaint of a stolen vehicle.
The victim told officers that he was employed at Westport Chinese Takeout restaurant located at 21 Franklin St. and that he had parked his vehicle in front of the business to briefly run inside and had left the vehicle unlocked and running, Westport Police said.
Once inside, he happened to notice two males enter the vehicle and speed away. Assisted by a co-worker, he began to follow it in a separate vehicle while calling the police and providing updates on the suspects’ location and direction of travel, police said.
A Westport officer was able to catch up to the stolen vehicle on I-95 northbound about a mile prior to Exit 19. Due to heavy traffic conditions at the time, the suspects did not see the patrol unit approaching in an adjacent lane. The officer was able to successfully merge in front of the suspects’ vehicle and then activated his emergency lights and siren in order to signal them to stop, Westport Police said.
The suspects did not stop and instead continued forward striking the right rear quarter panel of the officer’s patrol vehicle in an effort to escape and attempted passed the officer in the breakdown lane.
But they couldn't fit around the officer's vehicle and couldn't put the car in reverse due to traffic, so they were nabbed by the officer without further incident, police said.
During an investigation, it was learned that the two suspects, both 17-year-old juveniles from Norwalk, had been arrested earlier in the day by Fairfield Police and released.
Due to their earlier arrest, and the fact that one was on probation and the other had just completed probation, both were charged with larceny, and conspiracy to commit larceny. The driver was also charged with interfering with an officer.
Both were remanded to the juvenile detention center in Bridgeport.
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