Lady deputy chases stolen car through three counties

February 4, 2009 by pamliconews

Deputy Crystal Hardison

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JEFF AYDELETTE
PAMLICO NEWS STAFF

The high-speed chase of a stolen vehicle across the back roads of three counties began mid-day Sunday and ended a half hour later, thanks in large part to a safe, but relentless pursuit by Pamlico County Sheriff’s Deputy Crystal Hardison.

As one might expect, the county’s only female patrol officer and is well-regarded by her colleagues.
“Don’t let her size fool you,” said supervisor Dan Lamont of the department. “She is mighty tough and she did an outstanding job on this one. Never once through the entire chase did Crystal lose sight of that stolen car.”

Arrested and booked on a variety of felony charges were the driver, Stephen Michael Avery Jr. and his wife, Christina Scanes Hernandez Avery. The pair are being held in the Pamlico County Jail under stiff bail -- $40,000 and $20,000 respectively.
The chase ended shortly after noon when almost a dozen officers from Pamlico, Beaufort, and Craven Counties, including the state Highway Patrol, converged on a remote Craven County intersection, leaving the Avery couple no choice but to cooperate.
Hardison’s routine patrol along Hwy. 55 in Grantsboro soon turned frenetic Sunday morning after she spotted the eastbound 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which had been reported stolen two days earlier.
The four-year veteran executed a quick U-turn, closing in on the suspects near Cooper Road.
As Hardison activated her siren and lights, Avery accelerated and turned left onto Mill Pond Road.
“I had a hunch he was going to run,” said Hardison, 24, who agreed to a brief post-incident interview.
“When he turned off Mill Pond onto a muddy field road, he was fish-tailing so much that I thought he was going to lose it. I just wanted to stay close in my ‘Crown Vic’ patrol car. I put it down to first gear so I wouldn’t get stuck.”
She radioed for backup, which alerted Sgt. Stephen Harding of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department, who was on patrol near the Beaufort-Pamlico border.
Meanwhile, the suspects maneuvered the heisted and now muddy Jeep onto New Ditch Road. From there, they took a left onto Paul Farm Road. With Hardison still in hot pursuit, the suspects then turned north on Hwy. 306, bound for Beaufort County.
Little or no traffic on that straight rural stretch allowed Hardison to push pedal to metal.
“While they were on Hwy. 306, that’s when I had to hit my highest speed in order to catch up,” she said. “At one point, I looked down at my speedometer and I was doing 120 miles per hour.”
With the suspects headed his way, Harding quickly deployed ‘stop sticks’ near the vicinity of West Road.
“That’s a long object that has spikes in it to deflate a cars tires,” explained Hardison. “But the suspects avoided that obstacle by running off the shoulder.”
As Avery and Hardison flew past, Harding quickly retrieved the device, jumping in his patrol car to lend assistance.
Shortly after, the stolen vehicle turned left onto Tunstall Swamp Road, where the three-car caravan soon picked up yet another participant, an unmarked law enforcement car.
“I still don’t know who he was with,” laughed Hardison, “but he saw us coming, so he turned around and joined in. That was a good thing because at that point I thought I might run out of gas at any time.”
The realization prompted perhaps the most intriguing tactic of the entire chase. Urged on by Hardison, Harding managed to pass not only the Pamlico County patrol car but also the stolen auto driven by Avery.
Then, as the new leader of the pack, Harding slowed the pace, forcing Avery to brake suddenly.
“The guy hit his brakes so fast that I actually tapped him with my front bumper,” said Hardison with a chuckle.
After a number of equally harrowing incidents, the eluding suspects came to an abrupt halt at a remote Craven Couny crossroad where Sandhill Road intersects Saint Delight Church Road.
“We came up on that intersection and there were a bunch of red cars waiting with lights flashing,” said Hardison, referring to the color scheme of patrol cars driven by deputies from Craven County.
The culprits surrendered without incident. To hear her tell the tale, Hardison seems well-prepared to handle many more hijinks down the the road.
“The other guys handcuffed the two people and took them off to jail,” she said, quite matter-of-factly. “I would have done it, but by then I was running on fumes. I finally made it back to Handy Mart in Bridgeton where I bought some gas.”

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