Matteson police Tuesday arrested two men they believe robbed a motel at gunpoint before leading officers on a car and foot chase into a Country Club Hills subdivision.
The men were being held at the Matteson Police Department, said Matteson Police Administrative Sgt. Michael Black. Charges were being sorted out by various police jurisdictions.
About 12:40 p.m., the men allegedly entered the Country Inn & Suites Hotel, 950 Lake Superior Drive, near Lincoln Highway and Interstate Highway 57, displayed what looked like a semiautomatic handgun but turned out to be a BB gun, and stole about $250, Black said.
Hotel employees called 911 and said the men fled in a blue GMC Yukon Denali SUV, and within minutes Matteson officers spotted the vehicle.
The vehicle fled west on Lincoln Highway and north on I-57, with Matteson and Illinois State Police in pursuit. Just after exiting I-57 to eastbound Interstate Highway 80, the driver being pursued cut off a state police cruiser, lost control of the SUV and crashed in a ditch, Black said.
The police cruiser also went into the ditch, but the trooper was uninjured, according to Black.
The suspects jumped out of the vehicle and fled south on foot. Officers were able to chase down one of the men, but “the other guy hid for a while. It was about an hour before we found him,” Black said.
At about 1 p.m. Cook County Sheriff’s Police K9 Officer Jim Pacetti and his 4-year-old Malinois,Amber, began tracking the man who escaped. The dog led Pacetti on a circuitous route that led very near the man’s hiding place.
Officers from Oak Forest, Frankfort, the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff’s Police Departments, and K9 units from Matteson, Frankfort and the Cook County sheriff’s police joined the search.
The man was found under the back deck of a home in the 17800 block of Vista Drive in Country Club Hills, authorities said.
Black said a gun and money were recovered from the SUV.
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mwalberg@tribune.com
