Man Makes Off With Wife's Car While She's In ER
VALPARAISO, Ind. (STWM) - A rural Valparaiso man is accused of breaking his wife's nose, then stealing her car while she was in the emergency room. Terrance Anderson then reportedly got into a crash and fled the scene.
Police have asked prosecutors for a warrant to arrest Anderson, 35, on one felony charge of driving despite being a habitual traffic offender and three misdemeanors -- domestic battery, leaving the scene of a crash and possession of marijuana.
Police were notified about 8 p.m. Tuesday of a reckless driver in a Jeep in the area of Indiana 294 and Interstate 94, just before what appeared to be the same vehicle -- now traveling south on Indiana 149 -- sideswiped a northbound Mazda MX-3 driven by Pamela Strickland, 44, of Chesterton. Both vehicles were damaged.
The driver abandoned the Jeep Grand Cherokee at County Roads 550N and 250W, according to the police report, and a witness saw a man running away from the vehicle. Evidence left in the vehicle indicated Anderson, the husband of the vehicle's owner, had been driving.
Meanwhile, police had responded to a woman -- later determined to be Anderson's 35-year-old wife -- reporting that her Jeep was stolen from the area of Monroe and Garfield in Valparaiso. She had parked there while being treated at Porter hospital for a broken nose.
Initially she reported she got hurt in a trampoline accident, but she eventually said it happened during an altercation with Anderson around 4:45 p.m. She drove herself to the hospital and said she did not know what he did or where he went, but the vehicle was gone when she came out.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
