Frankin man arrested in theft of semi

A Franklin man and woman were arrested after a semi was stolen and officers used a police dog during a chase into the woods.

William McClintock, 45, was arrested on charges of theft and resisting arrest and a warrant out of Bartholomew County for a previous violation of probation, according to the police report.

Amanda Bates, 33, was arrested on a charge of resisting arrest.

On Tuesday morning, a man reported his tractor-semitrailer missing from a field near the 1700 block of South Old U.S. 31, south of Franklin. Shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, the semi tractor was spotted heading east on State Road 44, near the Shelby County line.

When a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy caught up with the tractor, the driver pulled the rig into a field along County Road 750W in Shelby County. The driver and a woman jumped out and ran from police, according to the report.

The sheriff’s deputy used a police dog to track the two. The deputy found the driver, later identified as McClintock, and the passenger, later identified as Bates, hiding in trees near a home on County Road 750W in Shelby County.

The semitrailer, which was connected to the tractor, was found Tuesday evening southeast of Columbus in Bartholomew County, according to the report.

Bates, 2340 Bristol Drive, was taken to the Shelby County jail.

McClintock, also of 2340 Bristol Drive, was taken to the Johnson County jail, where he was being held on $4,600 bond.