KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — A Columbia City man was arrested after resisting law enforcement and stealing two vehicles.

Brandon Eber, 20, 1801 West SR 205, Columbia City, was arrested for two counts of auto theft, both level 6 felonies and resisting law enforcement, a level 6 felony.

Brandon Eber

On Jan. 7, an officer with the North Webster Police Department observed a black GMC Envoy at Freedom Express. The officer checked the vehicle registration and discovered the vehicle was reported stolen from Elkhart County.

The officer activated his emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop. The vehicle attempted to escape the officer and backed into a pole, causing damage. The vehicle then fled and the officer activated his siren and attempted to follow the stolen vehicle. The North Webster Police Officer then lost sight of the vehicle.

At this point, an officer with the Syracuse Police Department located the GMC Envoy on Epworth Forest Road. The stolen vehicle barely avoided hitting the officer’s patrol vehicle head-on. The officer activated his emergency lights and sirens and followed until he too lost sight of the stolen vehicle.

Later in the day, a female reported that her vehicle, a 1996 Pontiac Bonneville, had been stolen from her residence and the suspects had left a black GMC Envoy in its place. Officers with the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department discovered this Envoy to be the same one that fled officers earlier in the day.

Officers received information that the Pontiac was spotted at a driveway in Kosciusko County. Officers drove in behind the vehicle and verified that the Pontiac was the vehicle reported missing from Whitley County. The Syracuse Police Officer recognized Eber as the same subject who he had pursued earlier in the day in the Envoy.

Eber told officers he had been driving the Envoy and that it was stolen. He admitted he fled from officers and drove the vehicle to Whitley County where he stole the Pontiac and left the Envoy.

Eber was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on Jan. 7.