Georgia police chase motorcyclist from Illinois into Macon at speeds topping 150 mph
It was just past 3:30 a.m. one morning in early April when a pair of Monroe County sheriff’s deputies who were on patrol along Interstate 75 below Forsyth spotted what, as they put it, “appeared to be a motorcycle.” It turned out that, yes, that is what it was. And it was streaking, rocketing south down the freeway onto I-475 into neighboring Bibb County. The deputies chased it down the highway but the motorbike, a green 2012 Kawasaki Ninja, wouldn’t stop as it topped 152 mph. “I observed the motorcycle erratically change lanes at high rates of speed several times (and) travel in the emergency lane to pass other (vehicles),” one of the deputy’s incident reports noted. After the motorcycle, which bore no license plate, merged back onto I-75 in southern Bibb County near Hartley Bridge Road, the deputies pulled alongside the motorcycle at about 130 mph. The deputy driving the patrol car eased over “channel” the motorcycle toward the emergency lane. It was there, near Sardis Church Road, that “the motorcycle rider put his hands up, as if signaling he would pull over and began to merge over to the emergency lane with me. Upon entering the emergency lane between mile marker 154 and 153, the rider came to a complete stop,” the report said. But the rider wouldn’t get off the bike even after what were described as “several loud verbal commands” to do so. Another deputy wheeled in front of the biker to make sure he didn’t take off. Then the deputies moved in and handcuffed the rider, a 21-year-old man from Illinois. He was jailed on charges that included fleeing the police. It wasn’t clear from the report why the rider was in such a hurry. Monroe Sheriff Brad Freeman said that they way cops in some jurisdictions do not chase such speeders anymore because of liability issues, the driver may have thought the deputies would call off the pursuit.
Dispatches: A reported shoplifting at Dillard’s department store in north Macon several months back involved the theft of six Louis Vuitton handbags worth $1,800 each. A man and woman were seen using “a cutting device” to sever security cables connected to the bags, a Bibb sheriff’s report said. When a store employee tried to stop the pair, the man zapped the employee with pepper spray and the pilferers got away. The bags were described as “vintage” with tags on them that read, “What goes around comes around.” . . . There was a report last fall of a theft at New Howard Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. A Bibb sheriff’s deputy went to the church on Lamar Road and spoke to the pastor and a deacon. The pastor said the church’s sign in the front yard had been hit by a car. While the sign was being repaired, the church placed a cornerstone that bore the pastor’s name and past deacons’ names in the back of the church. But not long after that the stone vanished. According to the October report, the pastor and the deacon “have suspicion a former church member may have taken the stone.”