A Pike County man helps police capture car thief

harryclem

Geno Bently of Pike County followed the suspect in his vehicle for 15 minutes until police captured the alleged car thief.

According to the arrest citation, Pikeville Police responded to a complaint of a stolen vehicle traveling on US 23 North Bound. Bently, called and reported police that he had seen a man get in a car parked in the car quest and he knew that the car did not belong to that man.

“So I walk in and I had a weird feeling and so i turned around and went back out and when I went back out that’s when I saw him of the drivers seat of the vehicle that got stolen.” Bently said. “So I pretended to go upstairs next to the vehicle and he watched as i went up there and as soon as I got to the top step I stood there for a second and heard him turn the vehicle on and then he took off. That’s when I went down and told my manager. He was like ‘Well go after him!’ So I went out, he was the one that actually called the police, and the man actually drove towards the library and did a u-turn and came back and passed by the store again and that’s how I was able to catch up to him.”

Bently, followed the vehicle to Coal Run Village where the vehicle turned up Joe Stanley Road.

“He slowed down got over in the left lane and I went ahead and went passed tried to make it look like nothing happened,” Bently recalled. “Then he darted over to the far right lane and tried to ditch me and so I told Chris [his boss]. By the time i went back and found the vehicle the police had already actually captured him so it worked out.”

Police located the man, 35 year old Harry Clem of Bowling Green, walking a short distance from the vehicle. Clem told the police he just wanted to get out of town.

Clem was booked and lodged in the Pike County Detention Center charge with theft by unlawful taking of an automobile under $10,000.