Suspect Tries to Flee in 'Lifted' Car

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20041004/ap_on_fe_st/unobservant_suspect

PITTSFIELD, Maine - A drug suspect who eluded capture in Maine and Colorado was captured Monday when he hopped into a car, cranked the engine and went nowhere because the wheels were lifted off the ground for repairs.



Jason Belmer, who is accused of burying cocaine in his grandmother's yard, was caught trying to steal the car, Police Chief Steven Emery said.


"He jumped into the car and started it up and tried to drive away. His big downfall was they had been working on it and it was on jacks," Emery said.


Belmer, 25, had been on the lam since running into the woods after 8 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $380,000, was seized Aug. 19 from his grandmother's property in Corinna.


A Colorado State Patrol trooper stopped a car in which Belmer was a passenger for speeding on Interstate 70 in eastern Colorado in early September. Belmer eluded capture by running into a cornfield. Authorities here were tipped that he had returned to Maine.