Salem Police Officer Jordan Taylor told WSLM last night the five male juveniles that were taken into custody yesterday morning were from Louisville and were breaking into vehicles along Tucker Street.
Some items taken have been recovered and returned to the residents.
The vehicle they were in has been reported stolen from Kentucky and police also found a gun in the vehicle.
Taylor said they ranged in age from 14-17 and are currently in a juvenile detention center with interest from both the Clark County Sheriff’s Department and Louisville Metro Police Department.
“We don’t know if this is the first time these juveniles have been in Salem or over on Tucker Street,” Taylor said. “They were getting into cars and stuff. We recovered those items and returned everything to the owners. They were taking credit cards, wallets, social security cards.”
Taylor said police aren’t sure what they were doing in Salem.
“We have their phones to see if we can track them to see if they’ve been here before,” he said. “Clark County seems to know a lot about them. We’re in touch with LMPD and they seem to have a pretty serious investigation going on about them.”
Taylor said LMPD had quite a bit about their past history.
Taylor said they have a video from a home of the juveniles in action.
“The driver would roll up and four of them would get out and go around to various cars and then they would get back in and drive up the street,” he said.
Taylor was dispatched to the area after a call came in about 3:18a Monday morning.
He proceeded to the Tucker Street area and saw the vehicle, which was speeding, and put on his lights and sirens, and the vehicle sped off.
He followed the vehicle into Borden.
“They were surprised I pursued them,” said Taylor. “In Louisville, they don’t pursue vehicles.”
Taylor said one driver bailed out of the vehicle when they were in Borden, and the vehicle had a flat tire and the other four juveniles got out and ran.
“One bailed out and the car kept going about 1000 feet,” he said. “The car blew a tire and they got out and ran. We ran around for quite a ways, and behind Norma Jeans, they wore out and got down on the ground.”
Taylor said the juveniles had a GPS pulled up to be able to navigate in Southern Indiana.
“They didn’t know anywhere around here. They had it mapped out how to get back to Louisville. They didn’t even know their way back to Louisville from Salem,” he said. “They didn’t know any back roads or they would have driven off of 60 between Salem and Borden.”
“Clark County has been trying to get in contact with them,” said Taylor. “LMPD had really been trying to get ahold of them.
“It’s nerve-racking,” said Taylor. “Residents need to continue to be watchful and keep their vehicles locked when they’re not using them.”
