A Sullivan man is facing multiple charges after allegedly crashing two different vehicles that were not his and almost running a woman over, according to Ellsworth police.
Bruce Dieter, 22, is accused of stealing a woman’s truck and nearly hitting her as he sped off, and of crashing another vehicle he was borrowing through road closure barricades, the Ellsworth Police Department said on Facebook
Dieter was later arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, reckless conduct, and leaving the scene of an accident, all of which are misdemeanors, police said. He also is facing a felony charge of criminal threatening, according to the Hancock County Jail booking log.
The truck theft was reported to police before 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Its owner heard the truck engine start and, when she went outside to investigate, she allegedly saw a man later identified as Dieter behind the wheel, police said.
He “accelerated at the female trying to run her over as he left the yard, exiting out of the driveway onto the road,” police said. “The suspect only made it a few hundred feet before going off the gravel road and crashing into a grove of trees.”
Dieter then allegedly got out of the truck and fled into the woods on foot. After police received a call from the woman with his description, they searched the woods for roughly an hour before finding and arresting him.
They then discovered the truck wasn’t the first vehicle Dieter allegedly had crashed that morning.
Road construction crews called police just before 8 a.m. to report that someone had driven another vehicle through road closure barricades and signs on Red Bridge Road before abandoning it, police said.
“After speaking with the owner of the vehicle, it was determined that it was lent to Bruce Dieter, the same male located in the woods from the other incident,” police said.
Other charges may be pending, police said.
