Tuesday, November 14, 2000

A driver, who rammed one vehicle in the McDonald’s Restaurant drive-through, struck two other vehicles before leaving the West Oakland Avenue parking lot with a vehicle following.

Soon enough, an Austin Police Department patrolman joined the pursuit.

When it ended, Maureen K. Eklund, 49 of 1901 Fourth Ave. SW, was under arrest.

According to an Austin Police Department report, eyewitnesses to Eklund’s driving called from the McDonald’s Restaurant near 6:06 p.m. Monday.

It began when the driver was in a line of vehicles going through the restaurant’s drive-through and Eklund attempted to back out of line.

She proceeded to strike at least two other vehicles in the parking lot before driving away.

An unidentified civilian followed the vehicle from the restaurant parking lot and saw it weave erratically through residential neighborhoods.

When an Austin officer stopped the vehicle in a residential driveway, the driver refused to get out of the vehicle and sped off with the patrolman in pursuit.

The vehicle stopped a second time, but again refused commands to exit the vehicle.

Finally, the officer physically removed the driver from the vehicle and hand-cuffed her for transport to the Austin – Mower County law enforcement center.

Inside the vehicle were 16 ounce bottles of beer and a thermal mug full of beer.

Eklund was arrested and jailed, pending multiple charges for the incident.

According to the police report, the vehicles struck in the restaurant parking lot suffered negligible damage.

Fire causes $12,000 in damages to Austin home

Jeff Halliday awoke Sunday morning to a chimney fire at his residence at 803 Ninth St. SW.

A neighbor had noticed smoke coming from the chimney roof line and told Halliday, who called 911.

Austin Fire Department firefighters arrived on the scene at 8:07 a.m. and discovered white smoke, increasing on the roof and extinguished the fire there and inside the home above the fireplace mantle.

Halliday told firefighters he lit the fire Saturday night and that it had been cleaned a year ago.

According to the AFD report, an estimated $12,000 damages was reported to the Halliday residence.

Firefighters remind all homeowners with fireplaces to be sure they have been recently cleaned and inspected and are in good working order for the winter weather ahead.

For more information about safe operation of fireplaces, call the AFD at 433-8105.