Convict guilty of two vehicle thefts in two months in Mower County

Published 6:08 pm Saturday, April 20, 2013

A Sacramento man guilty of stealing a truck in Rochester and running out of gas near Austin in December is now guilty of another vehicle theft.

Duangchan Keobounhmee, 31, pleaded guilty Thursday in Mower County Court to vehicle theft and fleeing an officer in a vehicle, both felonies.

An Austin Police Officer spotted Keobounhmee driving a reportedly stolen vehicle and called for backup. When officers initiated the traffic stop in Austin, Keobounhmee wouldn’t get out of his vehicle, according to the Mower County court complaint. Keobounhmee went south on 180th Street at 75 mph, turned onto County Road 4 and went into Freeborn County at 100 mph before turning around and heading back toward Austin.

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In all, six Austin police officers and three Mower County Sheriff’s deputies assisted in the chase.

An officer put a spike strip near the county line, which Keobounhmee hit with the driver’s side tires.

Keoubounhmee continued at 55 mph, the complaint adds, avoided another set of spike strips and eventually stopped at Fourth Avenue and 13th Street Northwest. He refused to get out of the vehicle, so officers forced him from it and had to shock him with a Taser to put handcuffs on him. At the jail, he refused to give his name.

Keobounhmee’s sentencing is set for Aug. 2. In the December case, he was convicted of felony vehicle theft and sentenced to 30 days in jail, five years’ supervised probation and 40 hours of community service. Keobounhmee stole a truck from Rochester, ran out of gas near Austin and was reported by a nearby resident and later arrested.