Stop us if youve heard this before.
Suspects fleeing law enforcement sought their getaway in, of all places, the Neosho River, where they briefly eluded capture by floating on a log before later being arrested.
Sundays arrests of Katrina Beach, 33, and Langston Polk, 23, both of Parsons, marked the second time within two weeks such a getaway was attempted. Iolan Aaron Hutton was arrested Aug. 28, after fleeing police a week earlier by jumping into the Neosho at Humboldt and floating away on a log.
The Chanute Tribune reported the circumstances behind the duos arrests.
Parsons police were called to investigate an incident at about 3 a.m. Sunday in which two people in a small red pickup were spotted removing property from a building near a ball field in the southeast part of town.
When police spotted the vehicle, the driver sped off, leading them along a 28-mile chase that wound up in rural Neosho County.
The abandoned pickup was found stuck in a soybean field, where officers were able to follow two sets of tracks to a nearby wooded area before losing the trail.
Fast forward several hours to Sunday afternoon, when a fisherman on the Neosho River told authorities he spotted a man and woman floating on a log in the middle of the river.
The woman had asked the man for a cigarette and the two wanted the location of the nearest town, Neosho County Undersheriff Greg Taylor told the Tribune.
Officers descended upon the area, where they found the suspects on a county road, about seven miles southeast of St. Paul.
The male suspect ducked into a nearby wooded area when he saw a pair of game wardens approach the woman, but surrendered shortly thereafter. He was not wearing shoes, officers noted.
Taylor said both suspects were scratched up but refused medical treatment.
Officers recovered shoes, apparently the males, along with identification papers and cards from the abandoned pickup, as well as what they described as marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Langston also had with him $250,000 worth of savings bonds, reportedly stolen from a rural Parsons man who lives in a nursing home, the newspaper reported.
In addition, they faced arrest warrants from Neosho County, and one each from municipal courts in Oswego and Chetopa.
The incidents remain under investigation.
THE CHASE comes fresh on the heels of the Aug. 28 arrest of Aaron Hutton, who was on the lam after allegedly robbing an Iola business Aug. 21, then fleeing to Humboldt, where officers chased along as he jumped into the Neosho as part of his getaway.
Officers lost sight of Hutton a few miles downstream and several hours later after a KHP helicopter following along had to leave and refuel.
