CARMI, Ill. - A gas drive-off occurred last night in Carmi, according to police reports today.
Carmi police said that the situation occurred Wednesday, June 13, at about 7:30 p.m., a Pundrake's gas and convenience store on Fifth Street.
A complaint was signed; authorities didn't indicate how much the thief made off with.
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Gregory Williams....apparently wearing his fave Christmas t-shirt
In a separate incident (and in an adjacent county), a Carmi man was arrested last night after a high-speed chase out of Mt. Carmel in neighboring Wabash County, following a crash.
Reports indicate that the chase began in Mt. Carmel when a patrol officer attempted to pull over Gregory Williams, 56, of Carmi, at a location on West Ninth Street in town.
Williams, however, pulled away from the stop and sped off, with the Mt. Carmel officer in pursuit.
Reports don't indicate what route Williams took, but authorities advised that the pursuit reached speeds of 100 mph, unsafe in any direction out of Mt. C (except, maybe, for the straightaway stretch of Illinois Route 15 toward Albion until the big curve midway between the community of Maud and village of Bellmont.)
And as it turned out, that's apparently where Williams went, as he crashed into a field off County Road 570E, right at the curve.
And even then, Williams is alleged to have run from the crash site...but he apparently wasn't fast enough to evade a TASER. He was subdued, and a subsequent search turned up the likely reason why he was disinclined to stop: Besides the requisite traffic citations of No Taillights and Driving While License Suspended, he was also taken in on arresting charged of Possession of Meth, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Resisting a Police Officer and Aggravated Fleeing and Attempting to Elude a Police Officer.
Williams was toted off to jail and awaits future court dates.