Wild ride and run

In what sounds like an episode from The Dukes of Hazzard, on Jan. 24 the driver of a pickup truck, in a high-speed chase with a Butte County sheriff’s deputy, crashed the vehicle into a power poll at Foothill Boulevard and Oroville Quincy Highway, sheared it off and ripped down the lines, which landed in a vacant residence starting a fire.

The truck then hit another vehicle and a fire hydrant before coming to rest against a large boulder. The driver, 24-year-old Christopher South, was being chased as a suspect in a home invasion in Forbestown in which the resident said two men forced their way into his home, pepper sprayed him, and stole his truck and items from his home, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputy Grant Landis spotted the truck and gave chase. Following the crash, the driver ran between two houses and up a hill toward Canyon Highlands Drive, where he was captured by Landis while trying to enter a house. South was on parole for burglary and arrested on charges of possession of stolen property, vehicle theft, and home invasion. The other suspect has not been located.