A YOUTH who allegedly escaped from a police station was one of two teenagers accused of leading police on a 30-kilometre high-speed pursuit on Olympic Way followed by a four-hour foot chase in Albury yesterday.
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The pair reportedly hit speeds of 170km/h, drove on the wrong side of the road, ran through storm drains, jumped fences, stole clothes and broke into a vacant house during the pursuit.
Police followed leads and reports from the public before a dramatic arrest in Fallon Street just after 2pm.
They said the two boys, aged 16 and 17, fled from police after being clocked at 124km/h in a 100 zone near Gerogery at 10am.
The silver Ford Falcon involved in the chase, reportedly stolen from Gilgandra, veered off the Hume Highway at the Davey Road exit after being held up by traffic.
The car was said to have crossed to the wrong side of Wagga Road at speeds of more than 150km/h before police called off the pursuit on the outskirts of Lavington.
A short time later the car was found abandoned in a cloud of dust in parkland, next to a storm drain off Boomerang Drive.
The speeding car narrowly missed two boys, aged 10 and 12, riding bikes along the street.
Wayne and Brandon Taylor thought they were going to be hit.
“It missed us by a couple of metres, went up the gutter and then skidded and drifted across the park and slammed into the tree,” Wayne said.
“They had clothes wrapped around their hands so it must be stolen,” he said.
Loren Hancock and Courtney Rolfe heard the car in the park next to their Boomerang Drive home.
“It was only a matter of minutes and the police were all over the place,” they said.
The two teens, then dressed in black, were seen running through the storm drain network as police descended on the area in force.
Just after noon they were seen again in Nowra Street, near to where one of the pair has been known to reside.
Police believed they had the pair pinned in a drain behind a house that had been broken into in Wantigong Street but they were again seen jumping fences in a nearby street just after 1pm.
Police said the youths had used backyards and parks to make their way more than a kilometre away in the 30 minutes prior to their arrest.
The 17-year-old accused of driving the car is from Lake Cargelligo and had allegedly escaped from the custody of juvenile justice officials at Gilgandra police station on Monday.
He was in custody to face charges relating to a break and enter, according to police.
He asked to use the toilet and made his escape on foot after forcing a locked gate, police said.
He was charged with escaping custody, driving a stolen vehicle, exceeding the speed limit by more than 45km/h, engaging in a police pursuit, driving dangerously, and unlicensed driving.
He will face Albury Children’s Court this morning.
His 16-year-old accomplice from Gilgandra was taken to Wagga last night and charged with breaching bail.
