One male teen is in custody while three other teen boys are wanted for their alleged participation in a weekend carjacking at the Dune Park Station of the South Shore Line.
Jessie Watts, police chief for the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, said he had never heard of a carjacking happening before at the Dune Park Station on U.S. 12, which serves the Chesterton/Porter area.
The one teen, taken into custody by Porter County authorities, is facing a potential delinquency charge of felony theft and resisting law enforcement, a misdemeanor. It is believed that he drove the stolen vehicle, Watts said.
Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann said a 13-year-old boy, alleged to be involved in the case, is being held at the Juvenile Detention Center.
No one was hurt in the incident, which ended with a crash in Gary.
A news release gave the following account:
A male, employed by an agency contracted by the South Shore Line, was cleaning the Dune Park Station at around 11 a.m. Saturday.
Two teen boys approached the cleaning employee, one of them pointing a gun and demanding that he turn over the keys to his Ford Maverick pickup.
The two males proceeded to the west side of the parking lot, where two other boys, also believed to be in their mid-teens, got in the vehicle.
A few minutes later, the Portage Police Department spotted the Ford Maverick pickup heading west on U.S. 12 and started a pursuit.
The driver of the Ford Maverick refused to pull over and increased his speed on U.S. 12.
Around the intersection of U.S. 12 and Melton Road in Gary, the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a utility pole.
The four teens inside the pickup scattered into the surrounding neighborhood.
During a search, a McDonald’s employee told an officer that one of the teens from the crash was inside the restaurant. Shortly afterward, that male exited the McDonald’s and was arrested.
Police are reviewing video from the train station as part of their investigation.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the 24-hour line of the NICTD Police at 219-398-6000.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
