A police stop leads to a chase, a stolen school bus and a suspect arrested, naked
Shortly after midnight Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police Troopers Ryan Blevins and Alex Loder pulled over a black BMW bearing Florida plates on the Lincoln Highway, just east of the New Oxford square.
The driver, later identified as a 25-year-old State College man named Tony Saunders, matched the description of a suspect in a burglary committed the day before, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. Trooper Matthew Duncan, who was investigating the burglary, was summoned to the traffic stop to continue his investigation.
Duncan spoke briefly with Saunders through the BMW’s window. Saunders told the trooper he was on his way home from his job as a mining engineer, according to the complaint. The trooper noted that Saunders “appeared disoriented,” Duncan wrote in the complaint.
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During the traffic stop, the troopers received a report of a theft that had occurred at a Rutter’s convenience store and that the description of the suspect matched Saunders. Items from the theft were on the back seat of the BMW, as was a dog.
Duncan also found a dead deer in the car’s trunk.
At this point, Duncan asked Saunders to get out of the car. As the trooper opened the door, according to the complaint, Saunders floored the car and sped off.
The encounter set off a series of events that would end hours later – after Saunders eluded police and escaped in a stolen school bus – with Saunders being arrested, while naked, for multiple charges, including theft, evading arrest and related charges.
As Saunders sped away, according to the criminal complaint, he was pursued by three police cruisers. Saunders switched off his lights while driving on the wrong side of the highway before turning onto Hanover Street in New Oxford. He turned onto West Locust Lane, where he ran off the road and drove through a chain-link fence.
Saunders then led police through a field toward a tree line, according to the complaint. His car got hung up on some railroad tracks and he ran into the woods, stripping off his shirt as he fled.
Police searched the area and two hours later, troopers spotted Saunders running on Route 94 near the York Road intersection. The troopers noticed that he was barefoot.
The troopers chased Saunders, who ducked behind the vacant Cross Keys Motel and ran into a heavily wooded area behind the building.
The troopers could not catch him.
About four hours later, at 6:37 a.m., police received a report of a school bus being stolen from the residence of a driver in Hamilton Township in Adams County.
Forty-five minutes later, according to the criminal complaint, state police were notified that Carroll Valley Police had spotted the school bus heading north on Route 15 toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike and when they tried to pull it over, the bus led them on a chase.
Police lost sight of the bus, but later found it, unoccupied, near the Capital City Mall. Witnesses told police they saw the bus’s driver, whose description matched Saunders, running into a nearby field.
Police found Saunders in the field and arrested him.
While Saunders was fleeing into the field, police reported, he had stripped off his clothing and was nude when he was taken into custody.
Saunders was held by police pending his arraignment Wednesday afternoon.
Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: A dead deer and a stolen school bus ends with arrest of naked suspect
