By Benning W. De La Mater
The Berkshire Eagle Staff
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A couple driving a stolen car led authorities on a car chase through two towns and a foot chase in an open field yesterday afternoon before being arrested, police said.
It all started about 3:45 p.m., when Officer Adelheid Teutsch noticed Kelly E. Cronin, 38, and Melvin T. Davis, 47, both of Pittsfield, acting suspiciously outside of the Mobil gas station on Route 7.
Teutsch ran the license plates on their 1995 Plymouth Voyager and learned that the vehicle was stolen. When she approached the couple, they drove off, heading north on Route 7 and then east on Route 102 toward Lee.
Stockbridge Police Chief Richard Wilcox said that the vehicle was stolen from Albany, N.Y.
Now in Lee, Davis steered the minivan into the parking lot of B&B Landscaping and Excavating off Route 102 and then into an open field behind the business. With the car stuck in a ditch, both occupants exited the vehicle and ran.
Teutsch tracked down Cronin, and a fight ensued during the arrest. The state police and officers from Lenox and Lee assisted in finding Davis, who jumped into the Housatonic River and then hid in a patch of woods. A K-9 unit with the state police found Davis, and he was arrested.
Both Davis and Cronin have “extensive criminal histories,” Wilcox said. Cronin was charged with larceny of a motor vehicle and with assault and battery on a police officer. Davis was charged with a number of motor vehicle offenses, including refusal to stop for a police officer, operating a motor vehicle to endanger and larceny of a motor vehicle.
Both were sent to the Berkshire County Jail & House of Correction last night and will be arraigned this morning.
Copyright 2007 The Berkshire Eagle