THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020781
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
As Al Armfield and a luncheon companion left the Elks Lodge Thursday afternoon, they wondered why several police cars were parked nearby, lights flashing.
Armfield got his answer moments later when he opened his car door and found a man sprawled across the front seat.
``Sneak me out of here,'' the man asked. ``No I won't,'' Armfield, 66, responded. And with that he reached in, hit his car horn and began waving and pointing at his car with his other arm.
The man jumped up, and ``I just opened the door and let him get out,'' Armfield said. The uninvited guest fled - into the arms of waiting police.
Calvin D. Urquhart, 19, of Liberia Drive, Norfolk, and a companion, captured earlier, were jailed Thursday night on car-theft charges. Police said the pair had just led them on a two-city chase in another car that had been stolen.
When it was all over, Armfield said he had learned one lesson: ``Lock your car.''
Armfield, a retired Navy man who is state president of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, said he was startled, more than anything else, when he found Urquhart hiding in his car. ``I didn't know what to think, to tell you the truth,'' he said.
``I wasn't sure whether he had a gun or not,'' said Armfield, who lives in Norfolk.
As it turned out, the suspect was unarmed.
The chase had started about an hour earlier in downtown Portsmouth, police said.
Portsmouth officer D.K. Butler was on routine patrol about 1 p.m. when he noticed two men acting suspiciously in a passing car. When he checked the license plate of the 1992 Plymouth Acclaim, he learned that it had been stolen Wednesday from the 100 block of W. Bute St. in Norfolk.
Butler tried to pull the car over in the 900 block of South St., but the driver would not stop and a 13-minute chase was on.
The Plymouth rolled onto Interstate 264 and through the Downtown Tunnel.
Norfolk police and state police had joined the pursuit by the time the car left the interstate in Norfolk on Campostella Road and headed onto Kimball Terrace. The driver then turned onto Merrimac Avenue and got back onto I-264 eastbound.
The stolen car exited northbound onto Military Highway and headed into the Poplar Halls neighborhood. Still, the car did not stop, heading instead across Virginia Beach Boulevard and into the Crown Point neighborhood, where it finally stopped in the 5300 block of Greenplain Road.
The two men in the car bailed out, but the driver, a 17-year-old from the 1500 block of Sinoe Place, was caught almost immediately. His name was not released because of his age.
Urquhart did better - initially.
The pair had made a mistake by driving into Crown Point, where there are few ways in - or out. Urquhart found himself cut off, with police cars on one side and a branch of Broad Creek to his back.
He ran northeast to Typo Avenue, a dead end, where Elks Lodge 38 is. Police were on his heels, and several police cars, with their blue and red lights flashing, soon converged on the area around the lodge.
Urquhart ducked into Armfield's unlocked car and hid there until discovered.
He was charged with car theft and was being held in the city jail Thursday night. The 17-year-old, also charged with car theft, faces additional motor vehicle charges stemming from the chase.
The chase caused no accidents or injuries. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE 13-MILE CHASE
STAFF
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: AUTOMOBILE THEFTS HIGH-SPEED CHASES ARREST by CNB