Alberta man chases 2 escaped inmates who stole his ATV before Mounties recapture them near Pine Lake
CBC News | Posted: June 14, 2018 12:30 PM | Last Updated: June 14, 2018
'After they drove out of my yard … I thought it could very well be two of the guys that escaped'
A Red Deer County man had a harrowing encounter with two escaped inmates from the Red Deer Remand Centre.
Four men escaped from the provincial correctional facility in downtown Red Deer early Tuesday morning.
One was apprehended later that morning.
The two others were caught shortly after Tyler Hirsche, who was working in his yard in the Pine Lake area southeast of Red Deer, saw the pair zooming out of his storage quonset on his ATV.
Hirsche said he didn't even think, he just jumped in his truck and gave chase.
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"After they drove out of my yard and I kind of got closer to them as they were on my quad, I got a good look at them and I thought to myself, I thought it could very well be two of the guys that escaped," Hirsche told CBC News Wednesday.
Hirsche said he followed the pair down a road and through few fields, at times getting to within 10 feet of them, until the men slipped under a barbed wire fence.
A neighbour who saw what was happening called RCMP, who were not far away.
Unbeknownst to Hirsche, RCMP were investigating reports of a stolen pickup truck close by, and tracked the suspects to the area.
Quinn Russel Peterson, 26, and Douglas Brian Power, 52, were arrested and taken back into custody. The RCMP canine unit was credited for catching one of the escapees.
"I don't know what they were expecting, I think they were just desperate because they knew the police were right on their heels and I think they were just looking for any way, or any last ditch effort that they could, that was all they could do," Hirsche said.
He said one of the reasons he reacted the way he did is that he's fed up with the increased crime he has seen in the area.
"We've all been through a lot of it and we've had enough. We're tired of standing by and not doing anything about it," he said.
"I've had a truck stolen, we've had trespassers on our property at nighttime, had friends down the road, neighbours broken into multiple times and vehicles stolen, threatened. We've kind of seen it all out there."
Hirsche did ultimately get his quad back from RCMP. It suffered some damage and needs repairs.
A fourth escaped inmate, Dallas Albert Rain, 26, is still at large. RCMP are warning members of the public not to approach him if they see him, but to contact police.
Officials said construction work at the Red Deer Remand Centre required that several inmates, including the four men who escaped, be temporarily transferred to a less secure area of the facility. They broke out through a window.