By Darran Simon
The Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, N.J. — They were supposed to come right back with Grandma’s car. She lent it to them Friday when they said they needed it to make a lawyer’s appointment.
It was a lie.
Instead, Blake Bills, 24, and Shayna Sykes, 23, at some point hightailed it out of Macungie, Pa., in Sykes’ grandmother’s 2003 Mazda Protege. The next thing anyone knew, they were in Camden — leading police in an oddball chase into Philadelphia in a police cruiser they allegedly hijacked, leaving a Camden officer injured.
The two are heroin addicts, authorities said Wednesday while leveling a slew of charges against them. Philadelphia authorities charged the two with stealing a Nissan Altima on Monday. They earlier charged the pair with resisting arrest, driving under the influence, and other offenses.
Also, the Camden County prosecutor charged Bills with attempted murder, carjacking, aggravated assault, and other offenses. Sykes was charged with conspiracy to commit theft of a car and joyriding. Both were charged with loitering to obtain a controlled dangerous substance.
The media attention overwhelmed Macungie’s small police department. The news also shocked Sykes’ former boss, Karen Mathis, a manager at the Stoned Crab, a seafood and steak house there.
Sykes left her waitressing job abruptly one summer weekend in 2010 after calling in sick, Mathis recalled, and moved to Philadelphia to work at a restaurant.
“I think she just decided to go,” Mathis said. “She had turned 21, she had a little freedom, and she just wanted to spread her wings. I don’t know.
“She’s a very sweet girl,” she said. “She’s just troubled.”
Records show Sykes has been arrested twice in Lehigh County for driving under the influence.
After Sykes’ move to Philadelphia, Mathis said, her grandmother came in to pick up her check and apologized.
Sharon Sykes could not be reached for comment this week.
“This is aberrant behavior,” said John Waldron, an Allentown lawyer who represents Bills in recent alleged offenses in Macungie, including burglary.
It was Waldron’s office that Bills and Sykes had told her grandmother they were headed for Friday afternoon, Macungie Police Chief Ed Harry said.
“They didn’t even have an appointment,” he said.
Harry said Sharon Sykes told Macungie police Monday that her car, her granddaughter, and her granddaughter’s fiance were missing.
Harry, who fielded numerous e-mails from reporters and conducted at least four interviews Tuesday, said the two never showed up at Waldron’s office.
The lawyer said he was trying to get the couple to come in to discuss an April court date for Bills.
He said Bills had worked as a bartender in Philadelphia, but was unemployed. The two have a 7-month-old daughter.
Bills graduated in 2006 from Kingsway Regional High School in Gloucester County.
Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, said the two “have a heroin addiction.”
Authorities gave this account of the pair’s bumbling crime spree:
On Sunday afternoon, they fled in the Mazda from a Camden officer.
The officer, who saw the two trying to buy drugs near Third and Erie Streets in North Camden, tried to stop the Mazda, but the couple took off, leading the officer on a chase on I-676. The cruiser rolled over while trying to make a sharp turn.
On Monday, the two stole the Altima after a deliveryman in Philadelphia left the keys in the ignition.
About 2 a.m. the next day, Sykes and Bills were spotted in the disabled Altima in North Camden. An officer offered to help, but had to respond to a radio call. When he returned, the couple were gone, and he discovered that the car had been stolen.
About 10 a.m. Tuesday, Bills stole a Camden cruiser that Officer Sekou Reid-Bey had stepped out of to conduct a traffic stop. The car struck Bey, fracturing his leg, as Bills and Sykes fled, leading police on a wild, televised chase across the Ben Franklin Bridge back to Philadelphia. There, Bills was caught, but Sykes stole a Philadelphia cruiser and led police on another hair-raising chase.
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