An Osceola man was arrested early Thursday when he was found hiding along the bank of the Raccoon River after fleeing law enforcement by driving his pickup along the Booneville railroad tracks.
Travis Glenn Ramsey, 33, of Osceola was taken into custody by officers of the Waukee Police Department shortly after 3 a.m.
The incident began about 2:30 a.m. when a security guard at West Central Auto Auction Inc. at 3277 Ute Ave. in Waukee, near the 117 interchange of U.S Interstate 80, reported seeing a suspicious person trying to break into the facility.
A Waukee Police Department officer responded and was patrolling the parking lot when “the officer heard spinning tires,” said Waukee Police Department Lieutenant Scott Cunningham. “He looked up and observed a silver pickup truck advancing toward the main gate.”
A high-speed pursuit ensued southward on Ute Avenue (County Road R22) and then eastward on 360th Street or Raccoon River Drive (County Road F90), where Ramsey drove his vehicle onto the tracks of the Iowa Interstate Railroad Ltd. (IAIS).
“The suspect tried multiple times to exit off the road,” Cunningham said. “The subject actually entered the railroad tracks and drove on the railroad tracks while the officer stayed on the road.”
Ramsey “tried to escape a couple of times and ended up fleeing on foot,” Cunningham said. “So he went on the railroad tracks and then bailed on foot. He went along the riverbank and was hiding, and the officers secured him about 150 yards from where he exited the vehicle.”
The Osceola man was taken into custody without incident. The Waukee Police Department was assisted in the arrest by the West Des Moines Police Department and the Dallas County Sheriff’s office.
Ramsey was charged with first-degree robbery, a class C felony, as well as third-degree attempted burglary, possession of burglary tools, fourth-degree criminal mischief, eluding, failure to yield to emergency vessels, failure to stop in assured clear distance, reckless driving and driving while revoked.
Ramsey is being held in the Dallas County Jail on $5,000 bond.
He was convicted in Decatur County in 2006 of third-degree burglary, first-degree and third-degree criminal mischief and trespassing causing injury greater than $200.
