Suspect captured after crash with squad car outside Danvers bar

Posted on October 4, 2017

Chad Matheson was arrested Wednesday after he was spotted at a Danvers bar. (Photo courtesy of the Piatt County Sheriff’s Department.)

By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – An alleged truck thief, who eluded authorities over a wide area of Central Illinois the past two days, was finally captured after someone spotted him in at a Danvers bar.

McLean County Sheriff’s Deputies and Danvers Police are providing some of the details of Chad Matheson’s arrest just before noon on Wednesday.

Police said on their Facebook pages that Matheson tried to drive off from the bar, and crashed into a Danvers squad car.

Police officers were not injured, and Matheson was said to have received medical treatment and was taken to the McLean County Jail.

Police were looking for Matheson for parole violations and for allegedly fleeing police from several Central Illinois counties. He had been considered armed and dangerous, and the public had been warned not to approach him.

Matheson is accused of stealing a pick-up truck from Piatt County Tuesday morning and a trailer from Bloomington. The trailer was found just south of Leroy.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

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