Pursuit of suspected car thief ends in drug bust

An incident involving an attempt to steal a car from a used vehicle lot on East Fifth Street led police to an arrest at a drug house.

The man who tried to steal the car so far has eluded police and the arrest was unrelated to that first incident, Dayton Sgt. Matthew Beavers said.

Police were dispatched to International Auto Sales, in the 2300 block of East Fifth Street, about 9:15 p.m. When police arrived, the car thief was under the hood of a vehicle.

He ran to South Horton Street and found his way to a suspected drug house, where police showed up in pursuit of him and ended up making a drug-related arrest, Beavers said.

There were several people in the suspected drug house, where officers found the front door wide open and several needles and a quantity of heroin in plain sight, he said.

No one there would say who they though had tried to steal a car from the nearby business, Beavers said.

One of the males there was taken to the Montgomery County Jail on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia after officers found several syringes on his person, the sergeant said.

Five others in the house were given citations that ban them from the address because it is a suspected drug house that people in the neighborhood have complained about, he said.