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Police chase ends in arrests By PETER WONG ROGUE RIVER -- Oregon State Police said Monday that a pickup truck stolen from Texas was involved in a three-county chase on Interstate 5 that ended in a crash near here over the weekend. The pickup's driver and passenger fled after the crash, but Talent Police Sgt. Kevin Kriz used a thermal camera to find them hiding in a blackberry thicket near the Rogue River. State Police officers arrested them and lodged them in the Douglas County Jail in Roseburg. Police said Monday that the 1999 Dodge Durango pickup was stolen from the Bank of America repossession yard in Austin, Tex., where the suspects are from. They were identified as Michael Brandon Gordon, 18, and Patricia Jane Zeringue, 21. The sequence of events began at about 5:35 p.m. Saturday at a truck stop in Canyonville, where the suspects allegedly failed to pay $13 for gasoline. A few minutes later, an OSP trooper spotted the pickup headed south on Interstate 5 near the Glendale exit. Police said the truck stopped near milepost 77, south of Glendale, but sped away at up to 100 mph as the officer stepped out of his patrol car. Spike strips were laid out near milepost 56 with help from the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, causing damage to the tires of the truck, an OSP patrol car pursuing it and an uninvolved party. Witnesses said the truck continued on its rims, throwing off sparks, until it crashed into the guardrail at milepost 48 near Rogue River and the occupants fled. Officers from Rogue River, Shady Cove, Talent, and deputies from Jackson and Josephine counties joined the hunt. Talent Police Chief C.W. Smith said Monday his agency was called about the use of its thermal camera. Sgt. Kriz used it to find Gordon and Zeringue in a blackberry thicket that officers had searched visually but failed to turn up anyone the first time. Smith said the camera was obtained as surplus from the federal government. Gordon was arrested on charges of reckless driving, attempting to elude a police officer, furnishing false information to a police officer, attempting to elude a police officer on foot, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Zeringue was arrested on charges of attempting to elude a police officer on foot and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Douglas County has not acted on charges against either for theft of services for the original alleged failure to pay for gasoline for the stolen pickup. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA