UPDATED--Teens arrested after 60-mile chase

By: 
Ann Gill
Editor

    As Coal City area residents slept, a car load of teens from Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood were rolling through the streets of town in a stolen Chrysler.
    During routine patrol early Tuesday morning, a Coal City Police officer observed a vehicle parked in the center of North Shabbona Street with its engine running and headlights on.
    The officer observed the vehicle had no rear registration plate, and as he approached a subject ran toward the vehicle got in on the passenger side and the car took off heading north down the quiet street.
    It was around 1:30 a.m. when the officer spotted the vehicle that police later learned had been stolen from Naperville on Friday.
    The officer followed the suspect vehicle as it turned right onto North Street and then south on to First Avenue, breaking some traffic laws in the process.
    A second Coal City squad car approaching in the northbound lane of First Avenue was forced to veer off the street to avoid being struck by the offending vehicle.
    Having called in the pursuit, Coal City officers continued to follow the vehicle that as it traveled east on Route 113 through the village of Diamond at speeds of around 90 mph.
    Coal City Police Sgt. Tom Logan reports when officers felt the speeds were no longer safe they slowed down and followed from a distance.
    When the police cruisers reached the overpass at Interstate 55 they observed the offending vehicle in the parking lot of the vacant restaurant on the south side of the roadway. As the officers proceeded into the lot, the suspect vehicle fled back on to Route 113 and took off northbound on the interstate.
    Coal City Police followed attempting to stop the offenders, but the units terminated the pursuit at Arsenal Road and returned to the village limits.
    From there additional agencies picked up the chase with Channahon Police reportedly using stop sticks in hopes of disabling the vehicle, but even with a couple of blown tires the Chrysler kept going all the way to Chicago.
    Illinois State Police apprehended the occupants of the vehicle in a parking lot at McCormick Place.
    Taken into custody was 19-year-old Michael E. Johnson who was transported back to Grundy County and booked into the county jail. Three additional juvenile males—two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old—are in custody at the River Valley Juvenile Justice Center in Joliet.
    It’s believed the teens were using the stolen vehicle to steal items from other cars.
    Logan expects the teens to be charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle, fleeing and attempting to elude police and several traffic citations.