Arkansas Sheriff's patrol car stolen, suspect still at large
05/10/04 – Hope, Arkansas
A Hope man who took off in a stolen Hempstead County Sheriff's patrol car Saturday remained at large at press time this morning.
According to Sheriff's Investigator James Singleton, Terry Parmer, 40, of Hope took off in Deputy Heath Ross' patrol car about 6 p.m., Saturday, after Ross had taken him into custody, handcuffed him with hands behind his back and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car.
Ross had been patrolling along Hempstead County Road 246 near Perrytown Saturday evening when he saw a red and black pickup truck sitting behind some bushes in the Scott Cemetery.
Ross pulled into the cemetery and questioned the driver, Parmer, about what he was doing at the cemetery. A routine driver's license check revealed that Parmer was wanted on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear.
Deputy Ross took Parmer into custody, handcuffed him, placed him in the back seat of the patrol car and returned to the pickup truck to inventory the contents of the truck. While Ross looked at the contents of the truck, Parmer somehow got his hands in front of him, got into the front seat of the patrol car and drove away.
Deputies chased Parmer down County Road 246 toward Perrytown, but the dust obscured their view, and they couldn't see where Parmer turned off.
The Sheriff's Department used an airplane to spot the patrol car.
"We found it parked behind a chicken house," Sheriff Jerry Crane said. "The keys were still in it, and there was no damage."
According to Singleton, the deputies located the patrol car on the Hillman Koen Farm behind a chicken house on County Road 243. Deputies then discovered that a blue 1995 Chevrolet pickup had been taken from the farm.
At press time this morning Parmer and the blue pickup remained at large. Sheriff Crane asked that anyone having seen Terry Parmer or a blue 1995 Chevrolet pickup with Arkansas license number 990HAB please contact the Hempstead County Sheriff's Department at 870-777-6727.