Following an intensive search of a rural area north of Olds on June 12, police arrested a man and woman accused of possessing stolen property and obstructing police.
Staff Sgt. Joe Sangster, commander of the Olds RCMP, said a utility truck operator came upon a pair of suspects allegedly attempting to connect a trailer holding a BobCat construction vehicle to the back of their pickup truck on Highway 587 between range roads 20 and 21 at roughly 3 p.m.
The operator was coming to repair the BobCat and when the suspects saw him, they attempted to flee in the truck with the trailer.
Sangster said the operator was able to block the pickup truck in and it became trapped in a ditch.
The suspects fled south into a wooded area on foot and police from Olds, Red Deer and Innisfail, including a canine unit began searching a grid stretching from Highway 587 south to Twp. Rd. 342 and from Rge. Rd. 20 to Rge. Rd. 21.
At one point, Sangster said, the suspects stole an ATV from a farm that had been attached to a sprayer.
An Innisfail Mountie heading southbound on Rge. Rd. 20 came across the pair on the ATV heading east and when they saw the officer, the suspects retreated back into the woods.
They ended up crashing and damaging the vehicle, Sangster said.
A police dog found the pair on a property off of Rge. Rd. 21 just before 4 p.m. and the woman suffered a dog bite to one of her legs during her arrest.
The woman was taken to hospital, treated and then transported to the Olds RCMP detachment.
Skylor Claybrook, 23, of no fixed address, and Pauline Hampel, 21, of Buck Lake are each charged with four counts of possessing stolen property and obstructing a police officer
Claybrook is also charged with driving while not authorized to do so.
