An Elephants Delicatessen delivery truck became an unwitting escape vehicle last Friday morning when a man reportedly stole it from a Milwaukie warehouse, trapping an employee within its confines. According to KGW, surveillance footage caught the suspect, identified as Forrest Lee Guayante, 29, of Aberdeen, Washington, getting into the cab and driving away at approximately 4 a.m. as employees were loading up deliveries for the day.
Workers witnessed the theft, including an employee named Esmeralda, who was hanging on for safety in the back of the truck as it began speeding away. "It (the truck) started moving even faster and then that's when I started to hold on to whatever I could I hold on to," she recalled in a statement as detailed by KGW. She jumped off the vehicle near the railroad tracks, reportedly suffering only minor injuries from the ordeal.
Following the theft, Elephants Delicatessen employees could track the misplaced vehicle using an air tag. Around 12:15 p.m., the truck was pinpointed to a parking lot in Beaverton, near Southwest Walker Road and Southwest Cedar Hills Boulevard. In a follow-up by Beaverton police, Guayante was found with the stolen truck near the intersection of Southwest Gem Lane and Southwest Cedar Hills Boulevard, as noted by KPTV.
Attempting to detain Guayante, he rammed a police vehicle and tried to make a getaway. The stolen truck soon ran into the traffic, forcing Guayante to abandon the vehicle and flee on foot. He darted through business parking lots and neighborhood yards before being tracked down by a police K9 unit, KOIN reported.
According to police, Guayante has been booked into Washington County Jail on multiple charges, including unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and reckless endangerment. Milwaukie Police Department will add further charges, including kidnapping and fraudulent use of a credit card, to the litany of offenses Guayante faces with the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office.
