By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
An individual driving a stolen Honda Civic in Centralia early this morning was nearly caught by police, but abandoned the car and ran off.
A half dozen Hondas were stolen in Centralia and Chehalis between Saturday and Tuesday morning and more have been reported missing each day since then.
According to Centralia Police Department Sgt. David Ross, just before 4 a.m. today, an officer spotted the red car in the area of Oxford Avenue and Marion Street and followed it in part because of odd driving behavior.
“(It) increased its speed and began to make turns through residential streets in an obvious effort to avoid being stopped,” Ross stated.
The driver stopped suddenly and ran, according to Ross.
A K-9 team was called to the scene but were not successful in locating the suspect, according to information from Ross at about 7:30 a.m. today.
The owner of the vehicle was located and it was determined that the vehicle had just been stolen. It was returned to the owner.
Yesterday morning at about 7 a.m., an officer was taking a report of a black 1991 Honda Accord from the same part of town – the 1300 block of Windsor Avenue – when a Chehalis police officer located the unoccupied car in Chehalis.