Wild Chase ‘Was a Very Big Mistake,’ Theft Suspect Says

It was supposed to have been a brief trip to Michigan with a buddy, a 2-week lark away from school and worries.

But now it is an indefinite stay in a St. George, Utah, jail cell, lodging earned by leading police and highway patrol officers on a dangerously crazy chase over freeway medians and through fences in a truck stolen from an Orange County firefighter.

George William Carter II, an 18-year-old Laguna Hills high school senior, said Wednesday he has spent the better part of 2 days reading the Bible, praying and thinking over his actions. His analysis:

“It was a very big mistake.”

In a telephone interview from the Washington County jail, Carter insisted that he did not steal the 1986 Nissan pickup truck or the two motorcycles in the truck’s bed. His 17-year-old buddy, a juvenile whose name was withheld by authorities, picked him up in the truck and did not tell Carter that it had been stolen until the two were on their way, about half an hour beyond Los Angeles, he said.

Carter, who said he has never run afoul of the law before, figured that the best plan would be to cross the state line and continue to his buddy’s friends in Michigan, where they could ditch the truck and then find some other way back home, without the police knowing.

“I said, ‘All right, let’s keep going. We might get caught.”

But that’s exactly what happened.

About 3:35 a.m. Tuesday, in the small southwestern town of Hurricane, Sgt. Kurt Wright--the sole officer on duty--saw the truck speeding through the town. He turned on his red light, but the truck sped off toward Interstate 15, Wright said. In pursuit, Wright learned that the truck was stolen. He radioed to Cedar City, about 40 miles north, and authorities there began setting up roadblocks.

Wright alone chased the truck north on Interstate 15, but about 5 miles south of Cedar City, the two suspects apparently saw another officer on the road, ready to take up the pursuit. According to Wright, the suspects attempted to dodge the officers by repeatedly crossing over the freeway median, driving the wrong way on the highway and crashing through fences alongside. In the process, the two stolen motorcycles riding in back bounced out, onto the freeway.

The chase ended when the two suspects crashed through a fence for a third time and abandoned the truck in the tiny subdivision of Hamilton Fort, Wright said. Officers and police dogs from Cedar City surrounded the homes. The dogs found Carter’s buddy, and Carter surrendered soon after, Wright said.

Carter has been charged with three counts each of second-degree vehicle theft and possession of stolen property, and one count each of felony failure to stop at the command of a police officer, reckless driving and destruction of private property. The juvenile was arraigned on three counts each of vehicle theft and possession of stolen property. Wright said the truck was stolen in El Toro and the two motorcycles were taken from the Laguna Hills area.

Carter, who was driving, insisted Wednesday that he was not speeding in Hurricane, where they stopped for gas. “I’d swear on the Bible,” he said.

But when the officer tried to stop the truck, he panicked.

“I was confused. I didn’t know what to do. I was scared,” he said. “I had never been in jail before, and I didn’t want to go.” Further, Carter insisted that his friend did not tell him the motorcycles were stolen until after the chase began.

He said he was barefoot when they abandoned the truck and tried to hide in the bushes. He twisted an ankle, and his feet were so severely cut that he could hardly walk by the end of the chase, he said. “They (jail authorities) said they would fix my foot, but they didn’t, and now it’s infected,” he said. He also stripped off his clothes, hoping his black skin would be harder to spot in the pre-dawn hours, he said. But Carter said his buddy was bitten by a police dog and called to him to give up.

“I’m lucky I’m alive. That was real scary, going the wrong way on the freeway,” he said.

Carter said he hopes that his parents will arrive soon to help. (They could not be reached for comment.) He said there were problems at home, the kind that develop “when kids turn 18 and turn defiant and do stupid things, like not telling parents where they’re going.”

Carter spent the first night crying in his jail cell and seeing no future for himself, he said. He is due to graduate from Silverado High School later this year and was planning to join the Army, but a criminal record would throw his military stint into doubt, he said.

If he could do it over again, what would he do differently?

“As soon as I had an inclination that truck was stolen, I’d have turned right around. I would have gotten out and started walking,” he said.

As for the owner of the stolen truck, he said, “tell that guy that George Carter says he is really sorry.”

So is Terry Gorgen, the Orange County firefighter whose truck was stolen.

“I’m sorry he got into it too, but he got himself into it,” he said. “I’m afraid there’s going to be a little penalty for his naivete.” But he also is sorry for the officers involved in the dangerous chase, and for the owners of the motorcycles. Carter “should be thankful no one got killed or hurt, him or his buddy or the officers. I’ve been on too many accidents where there’s been needless carnage.”

Gorgen said the truck was stolen hours after he returned to his El Toro condominium from visiting his parents in Mission Viejo for Mother’s Day. The truck, painted a deep brown with gold pinstripes and custom wheels, was locked in the parking lot, but apparently the thief jimmied the door lock and hot-wired the engine, he said.

“I was upset then, and I still am,” he said, adding that he winced when he heard that his truck--the first vehicle he had ever bought new--was used to crash through fences. He has only four more payments left on it. “You know it’s only an object, and it could have been a lot worse, if anyone had been hurt in the chase. But that was my truck, and I took very good care of it.”

Gorgen, who is stationed in Mission Viejo, said he has worked as a supervisor of crews made up of jail inmates who are called in for fire prevention and cleanup work, “so I have a little background in dealing with the bad boys.” He was glad to hear Carter was repentant, but he has heard that before.

“I know from working with the inmates, every one of them cried and was sorry and looked to the Lord and said they’d never do it again,” Gorgen said. “And I had a lot of repeaters.”