Sheldon, Iowa — What began as a suspicious person report in Sheldon late Friday night ended with an arrest in a rural Hospers cornfield, and involved seven separate northwest Iowa law enforcement agencies.
According to Sheldon Police Chief Scott Burtch, officers were responding to a suspicious person call, where a car tried to avoid the officer while he was in the area. Burtch says a Sheldon officer went to check on the car and clocked it driving at speeds in excess of 70-miles-per-hour. Even after the officer activated his squad cars emergency lights and siren, the vehicle continued to lead him on a high-speed chase, with speeds reaching more than 90-miles-per-hour.
Burtch says the pursuit wound down several gravel roads in northern Sioux County and entered Hospers, where the suspect vehicle went around that town a couple of times before heading southeast, with officers in hot pursuit. Southeast of Hospers, Chief Burtch says the vehicle entered a field of standing corn in an attempt to elude the officer. While the chase was proceeding through the cornfield, Burtch says a male passenger jumped from the moving vehicle. The pursuit continued for a short time in the cornfield until the suspect vehicle became disabled and the driver was taken out of the vehicle at gunpoint by pursuing officers.
Burtch identifies the driver of the vehicle as James Skoglund. He says Skoglund was taken into custody and booked into the O’Brien County Jail.
Burtch says officers searched for the passenger, but were unable to locate him. But he says arrest warrants are pending for the passenger.
Sheldon Police were assisted by deputies from O’Brien and Sioux Counties, police officers from Orange City, Sanborn and Paullina Police Departments, and troopers from the Iowa State Patrol.
Photo courtesy of the O’Brien County Jail
