Two teens from the Chance Home for Girls face several charges after stealing a Baxter family’s vehicle and crashing it in Franklin County Monday.
Brandon ‘Gump’ Mathis, the owner of the vehicle, said he was at work when his wife texted him that their 2017 Nissan Murano was missing.
“I was more shaken up to the fact that someone had gotten in my house while my wife and daughter were asleep,” Mathis said. “The car can be replaced, they can’t… Now that everybody’s OK, I’m sitting here thinking someone’s got to be held responsible for it. I mean, if it were my kids who went out and wreaked havoc, someone would be coming to me to flip the bill.”
Baxter Police Lieutenant Cris Austin said officials contacted OnStar and Sirius XM to help locate the vehicle and contact local authorities in Franklin County.
“They put a ping on [the vehicle] and advised that it was in Winchester,” Austin said. “Within 15 or 20 minutes after they did that, Winchester Police Department got in pursuit of the vehicle along with the county officers down there, and ended up stopping the vehicle and getting the stolen vehicle back along with the two runaways from up here in Putnam County.”
Mathis said the teens crashed the vehicle into a gas pump and a house before they abandoned it. He has tried calling the Chance Home for Girls following the incident but has not yet heard back from them.
“They need to do something about the girls home where them girls escaped from,” Mathis said. “It shouldn’t be that easy for them to get away. According to local police it happens all the time.”
Austin said the girls face “multiple, multiple” charges from both Winchester and Baxter police departments. BPD is charging both teens with burglary and theft of a motor vehicle.
