COOLEEMEE – Police Chief Bobby West was on routine patrol early afternoon on Tuesday, June 27.

He drove his police vehicle onto the parking lot of Dollar General off NC 801, and noticed a man and woman in a yellow convertible. They were looking down, as if on their cell phones, West said.

He thought nothing else of the two.

He circled the parking lot and went back onto NC 801, headed toward Rowan County.

At Center Street, he noticed that yellow car had sped up to his bumper. Then the driver passed on a double yellow line, slowed enough to flip the police chief “the bird,” then tried to cut him off before taking off toward Rowan County.

Of course, West activated his blue light and siren and followed. The suspect didn’t stop. West noticed smoke coming from the yellow car’s exhaust as if it had just been floored.

He followed it to Cool Springs Road to Hart Road, when the suspect’s car jumped a ditch, narrowly missing an oak tree, West said. The car went over other ditches as it went through a church yard at Hart and Needmore roads.

By now, West was receiving cooperation from another Cooleemee officer, as well as Rowan County, Salisbury police and a Davidson County ATF officer. They were aware of the direction the suspect was headed, and were lined up to cut him off, when the car sped down a power line cut, disappearing onto an old sawmill road near Erwin Temple Church, West said.

Only minutes after that, it was reported stolen. Apparently, it hadn’t. The vehicle’s owner was the passenger, Kierstin Moore, who was charged by Rowan officials with filing a false police report and misuse of the 911 system.

David Mark Seamon, 23, of NC 801, Woodleaf, was charged by Cooleemee with fleeing to elude arrest, resisting arrest, driving without a license, reckless driving and passing on a double yellow line.

West said he asked Seamon why he did what he did, knowing he was a police officer. The officer said the suspect said that he just messed up.

He added that the whole incident surprised him, because the suspects were of no interest to him until they purposefully broke the law in his presence.