COUNTRYSIDE – Three employees of Autobarn Volkswagen of Countryside became the talk of the dealership when they assisted in detaining two suspects in a hit-and-run after they attempted to flee the scene.
Adrian Ochoa, Juan Espinal and Nico Vujanovich were at work April 4 when a crash took place outside the dealership at Joliet and La Grange roads. Ochoa was sitting at his desk in the middle of a phone call when he said he heard the impact of a collision.
“That intersection is prone to accidents so I’ve heard the sound before, but this was louder than usual,” Ochoa said.
The men went outside to check on the accident, and Ochoa recalled seeing the first vehicle with major front end damage and the second vehicle’s passengers stepping out, what he presumed was them getting out of the way. The man and woman grabbed what ended up being a backpack and walked away from the scene. The employees noticed they kept walking and called out to them. As soon as they called out, the suspects took off running.
“You know that fight or flight response? My instinct said to go,” Ochoa said. Ochoa took off running first, and Espinal and Vujanovich followed close behind.
Ochoa said they followed the suspects around BMW Motorcycles of Countryside and CJ Wilson Mazda of Countryside before they ended up at Home Depot. The woman ran inside Home Depot while the man tried to get into another vehicle. That was when Ochoa caught up to him and tried to grab him.
“I didn’t realize until that moment that he could have had a weapon on him. I thought about tackling him to the ground but went for his backpack instead,” Ochoa said.
The backpack fell to the ground, along with items allegedly stolen from a Target in Hodgkins earlier that day. The man tried to flee again when Countryside police arrived on the scene, and during the course of their investigation, they learned the vehicle the pair was driving was stolen from LaSalle.
“We are very close with the business community and appreciate the help that took place that day,” Deputy Chief Scott Novak said.
Ronald J. Catalanello Jr., 31, of LaSalle, was charged with possession of stolen vehicle, hit-and-run, driving under the influence and reckless driving. Alleece Sartori, 27, of Morris, was charged with criminal trespass of a vehicle. They have both been released from Countryside police to LaSalle police.