Unidentified driver in suspected stolen SUV leads Brook Park police on high-speed chase

By Bob Sandrick, special to cleveland.comBROOK PARK, Ohio – An unidentified driver led police on a high-speed vehicle chase at about 11:30 a.m. Oct. 7 on Brookpark Road and Interstate 480.Police saw the driver’s Volkswagen Atlas traveling 57 mph northbound on Henry Ford Boulevard. They tried to pull over the sport-utility vehicle but the driver didn’t stop.Police followed as the SUV turned right onto Brookpark, then left onto I-480 eastbound. The SUV’s speed exceeded 125 mph. Due to heavy traffic, police ended the pursuit on 480 at Ohio 176. Police traced the Volkswagen’s license-plate number to a woman living in Willoughby. They called her and she said she was working at a daycare center.The woman said she had left her home in Willoughby at about 7:30 a.m. that day and dropped her daughter off at school. Then she drove to work.The woman, while on the phone with police, walked outside and discovered that her vehicle, the Volkswagen Atlas, was missing. She said it must have been stolen.The woman said that only she and her 17-year-old son had been driving the Atlas. She said her son was at school that morning.Police noticed that the woman’s driver’s license listed a Garfield Heights address. They asked her who lived there. She said she didn’t know. The woman said she was going to buy the Garfield Heights home but backed out of the purchase. She was unable to explain why the address was on her license.Garfield Heights police went to the address on the woman’s license but didn’t see the Atlas. License-plate reading cameras recorded the Atlas entering the Ohio Turnpike and exiting onto Pearl Road in Strongsville. Police asked the Ohio Turnpike Commission to check their toll cameras for video of the Volkswagen. I cover City Halls and school boards in Brecksville, Broadview Heights, North Royalton and Strongsville, specializing in watchdog journalism. As a staff reporter for cleveland.com and Sun News, and now as a...