DEXTER (NEWS CENTER Maine) — UPDATE: Tyler Tibbetts, who led police on a high-speed chase after stealing a police cruiser in Dexter was released from the hospital Monday and taken to Penobscot County Jail.
22-year-old Tyler Tibbetts sustained severe injuries after the high-speed chase ended in a crash.
Police say they put Tibbetts in the back of the cruiser while they assisted Tibbetts’ girlfriend and her small child at a home on Garland Street in Dexter. The car was left running and Tibbetts maneuvered the handcuffs to the front of his body, squeezed through the 11’’ x 11’’ opening and drove away with the stolen cruiser.
Tibbetts eventually dropped the cruiser and picked up a second stolen car that he drove through multiple towns up to speeds of 100 MPH.
Neighbors say they don’t normally have police around their neighborhood, but there was a lot of them around on Friday. They also said they saw the Drug Enforcement Administration at Tibbetts’ house.
Aside from Friday, neighbors say, Tibbetts and his girlfriend are quiet and normally keep to themselves.
“They had a rabbit one day over there and it got loose and we caught it for them. And they came over and got it. But other than that no. I never had any problem with them," Jennie Frost said of her neighbors.
Tibbetts is being charged wtih theft of a motor vehicle, leading police on a chase, and probation violations.
Tibbetts is expected to appear at Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.