Vanblarcume in jail after high speed chase

By Jane Beathard

Staff Writer

 

Innocent motorists and local police officers alike escaped injury during a 20-mile, high-speed pursuit early Saturday along Route 665 from London to Grove City.

Robert L. Vanblarcume, 38, 816 Greenfield Ave., Columbus, remains in Tri-County Regional Jail under a $15,000 bond, following arraignment in Madison County Municipal Court on Monday. He is charged with receiving stolen property, failing to heed the signal of a police officer and a half dozen traffic offenses.

According to a London police report, Officer Mike Combs was southbound on South Main Street just after midnight on Saturday when he spotted Vanblarcume driving a 2002 Dodge Caravan reported stolen from the Ohio Historical Society.

When Combs attempted to stop the van, Vanblarcume turned eastbound on Center Street and sped out of town, running the Maple Street light. During the 13-minute chase that followed, Vanblarcume’s vehicle allegedly reached speeds of 100 mph as it passed through Darbydale and traveled into suburban Grove City.

Along the way, deputies from Madison and Franklin counties, as well as officers from Grove City and Columbus joined the pursuit. Columbus police also dispatched a helicopter.

Several times, Vanblarcume appeared to loose control of the van, steering on and off the roadway and narrowly missing other vehicles at Lilly Chapel-Opossum Run Road, Biggert Road, and at London-Groveport Road in Darbydale.

Near the South Meadows Drive intersection in Grove City, the van blew out both driver’s side tires and stopped. Vanblarcume then fled on foot with Combs and fellow officer Timothy Myers and Deputy Mike Talbert close behind.

They eventually apprehended Vanblarcume, after finding the man hiding in a dumpster near the Mt. Carmel Laboratory Service Center in Grove City.