SCSO: St. Maries man arrested for Grand Theft Auto following I-90 pursuit

WALLACE — On October 24, 2017 at 1:50 p.m., the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) received a report of a stolen vehicle out of Elk Creek in Kellogg.

The reporting party stated she had just witnessed her vehicle leaving the driveway, but was unable to advise responding units the direction of travel.

SCSO deputies requested the assistance of the Kellogg Police Department (KPD) and immediately initiated a search for the vehicle.

The vehicle, a 2017 silver Buick Enclave SUV, was located a short time later by a Kellogg Police officer.

The officer witnessed the vehicle traveling westbound on Interstate 90 at approximately milepost 51.

The officer then attempted to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle, but the vehicle failed to yield and continued westbound on I-90- beginning a pursuit.

An SCSO deputy was able to take over for the KPD officer who then disengaged from the pursuit.

Two Shoshone County deputies and one Pinehurst deputy pursued the vehicle over the county line into Kootenai County, where several Kootenai County deputies and Idaho State Police troopers were preparing to intervene in the pursuit.

As the pursuit continued, the suspect exited at milepost 22 and avoided the assisting Kootenai and ISP units.

The suspect then turned South on State Highway 97.

Due to several contributing factors, the primary SCSO responding deputy made a decision to discontinue the pursuit at approximately milepost 87 on Highway 97.

Within minutes of discontinuing the pursuit, Kootenai County and ISP units were able to make contact with the SCSO deputies.

Collectively, after saturating the area with units in addition to utilizing a K-9 and handler to search, the suspect, George B. Ohm, 63, of St. Maries, Idaho, was taken into custody and the stolen vehicle was returned to the owner.

The SCSO would like to thank all of the law enforcement agencies who assisted in apprehending Ohm.