Photo by Vince Harper The truck finally stops.

Photo by George Lauby Weaving across lanes on 4th, near Ash.

Photo by Jeff Johansen Police lights on the back of the truck, Cederberry and Gilman.

Photo by Jeff Johansen The end-chase, from a neighbor's house on Cedarberry.

Joshua Martens, 26, of Gothenburg is in the North Platte hospital under an armed guard after he and three juveniles led law officers on a semi-truck chase late Monday night.

FREE Mobile Banking NOW AVAILABLE!

At about 10:20 p.m., the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office received a report that a semi-tractor and cattle-trailer was being stolen near Brady.

The call came from Duane Davis, a trucker who lives in Brady. Davis's wife heard a truck rumble past the house and asked her husband to take a look to see who on earth would be driving past at that hour. Davis, who had just stepped out of the shower, looked out and was astounded to see his truck.

They called the law. Davis got dressed and followed in his car. The thieves allegedly drove around Brady for a little while, running into posts, including a fire hydrant that tripped a latch on the hopper of the cattle trailer. Davis followed a trail of cow manure west on U.S. Highway 30.

About three miles west of Brady, he met a sheriff's deputy that had come from Maxwell. They were stumped. Neither of them had seen any sign of the truck on the highway.

At that time, the truck was about a mile north on E. Pawnee Road, well out of sight from the highway. Martens and his companions were unhooking the trailer in the middle of the gravel road. Davis said they properly dollied down the jack stands and disconnected the air lines. Then they drove on to West Pawnee Rd., looping back around to U.S. 30 and on toward Maxwell.

Deputies and Nebraska State Patrol troopers found the semi-tractor on U.S. 30 near mile marker 189, a mile west of Maxwell.

Deputies set up tire-deflating spike strips at the North Platte River Bridge near the North Platte Regional Airport. And, police and state troopers set more strips of spikes at the intersection of Newberry and Highway 30, just east of North Platte.

The truck was able to evade most of the first set of spikes, but fared badly on the strips near Newberry, deflating both front tires and the right rear set of dual tires.

The truck continued on anyway, west into North Platte on 4th.

On the advice of the state patrol, officers in pursuit backed off, hoping the truck would slow down. But the tractor sailed along 4th St. at 60-70 miles per hour, Lt. Mike Swain of the North Platte Police Department said.

Police squad cars managed to block off several intersections ahead of the truck, preventing other drivers from getting in harm’s way, Swain said.

The truck ran the stoplight at Poplar. A few blocks later, the driver temporarily lost control (in the 500 block of E. 4th) and sheared off a light pole at its base.

The driver ran right through the downtown traffic lights, Swain said, so police picked up the pursuit again.

With its tires ruined and the rims cutting into the pavement, the tractor continued to weave west along 4th St.

There was a near-wreck at the intersection of 4th and Buffalo Bill Ave., Swain said, when a vehicle neared the intersection as the semi-truck ran a stop sign there at high speed.

The truck continued west across Buffalo to the end of 4th at Elder, then turned south. It went 12 blocks straight south, then turned east on Cedarberry.

“At that point the truck became stuck in the snow,” Swain said. “Officers approached the cab, but the driver got the truck unstuck and kept going.”

The truck made it a couple more blocks to Gilman, deep in a residential area, and came to a stop just across the intersection of Cedarberry and Gilman.

As the caravan rolled through North Platte, residents were astonished to see the police lights and hear the noises. One man said the rims on the pavement sounded like the truck was dragging heavy chains.

Vince Harper, who lives at the intersection where the truck stopped, was thinking about going to bed when he heard the commotion. He went out to see what was going on and saw cops running to the truck with guns drawn. He went inside until the scene quieted, then went out and took pictures.

The front rims were worn down so far that the front bumper was on the street, as evidenced in Harper's photo.

Four occupants -- an 11-year-old boy, 12-year-old boy, 14-year-old boy and Martens were taken into custody.

The semi trailer was soon found back on East Pawnee Road. Martens' car was found in an alley near Davis' house.

Davis' semi had been parked in his lot near the east side of town, only about four blocks from his home. Luckily, the thieves drove around Brady, attracting attention, Davis said, chuckling as he spoke.

"I'm laughing cuz I don't want to get depressed about it," he said. It is his only truck and he uses it to haul a load or two of cattle every day.

"I hope the insurance adjusters get to it tomorrow," he said.

Martens recently served time in an Oklahoma penitentiary for assaults, protection order violations and failure to appear charges. He was released in November.

Martens admitted to investigators that he violated his Oklahoma parole. He said the four were headed to Missouri.

Investigators believe Martens convinced the 14-year-old to steal the semi and showed the boy where it was.

The two have also been tied to a string of Dawson County burglaries and thefts.

Apparently, the 11- and 12-year-olds hooked up with the other two after the Dawson County crimes, Lincoln County Chief Deputy Dean Sparks said.

On its late-night journey, the semi damaged street signs and light poles in Brady as well as North Platte. The truck itself suffered nearly $20,000 in damages, Sparks said.

The 11- and 12-year-olds have been released to their parents. The 14-year-old was taken to the North Platte juvenile holdover center.

Martens complained of head and neck injuries and was taken to Great Plains Regional Medical Center. The medical staff found a spot on his spine that they are investigating, Sparks said. He is under watch by Lincoln County deputies and, when medically cleared, will be booked into the Lincoln County Jail.

Martens and the 14-year-old were charged in Lincoln County with felony theft and felony criminal mischief. And, both were also charged with felony child abuse.

Assistant Editor Ben Schwartz contributed to this report.