Stephens County Sheriff’s Office arrests female suspect in today’s car chase case
By Tony Pilkington and Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
The Stephens County Sheriff’s Office arrested the female suspect in an alleged shoplifting case that turned into a high-speed car chase around Stephens County today.
Sheriff Kevin Roach said that Kari Haigler was found hiding in a dumpster on FM 207, aka the Necessity Highway, southeast of Breckenridge, on Wednesday night, Jan. 3. Michael “Lucky” Aldridge, the man who was allegedly driving the car as they evaded law enforcement officers, has not been located, Roach said.
“So we got a call from a resident about a mile south of (U.S. Highway) 180 on (FM) 207, who said a male and female came to their door and claimed they’d wrecked their car and was wanting to come in,” Roach said. “They called someone for them to come get them and then gave them a blanket and called us. And we came out. Of course, they had already fled the area (on foot), but we ended up locating her in a dumpster here on 207.”
Haigler was arrested, and Roach said the sheriff’s office is in the process of filing the paperwork to formally charge her with a misdemeanor for evading arrest. Haigler was allegedly the passenger in the vehicle.
Law enforcement officers are continuing to search for Aldridge.
The series of events leading up to Haigler’s arrest started earlier in the day when Stephens County Constable Wayne McMullen was at Walmart and two people were pointed out to him as alleged shoplifters. When McMullen tried to stop the subjects, they fled in a four-door Subaru Legacy, Roach said.
A subsequent car chase involved the constable, Sheriff’s Office, Breckenridge Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, and went from Walmart to the bridge on U.S. Highway 180 West over Hubbard Creek Lake, which has been closed by the Texas Department of Transportation. Then, the chase went through the southern part of the county to U.S. Highway 183 and then to U.S. Highway 180 East, where they crashed into a pond at a water treatment plant and then fled on foot, according to Roach.
(Photo courtesy of Stephens County Sheriff’s Office)
