Police: Chicago man stole car from Elmhurst dealership, crashed it after being chased by employee

A Chicago man was granted pretrial release after police said he stole a car from an Elmhurst dealership Sunday afternoon and crashed it while being chased by a dealership employee.

Joshua Pickett, 19, is charged with burglary, theft of property more than $10,000, possession of a stolen vehicle and criminal damage to property.

Authorities said Pickett broke into a car dealership Sunday afternoon just before 2 p.m., damaged surveillance equipment, stole a key to an Infiniti coupe and then stole the vehicle off the lot.

According to Elmhurst officials, two dealership employees happened to show up at the business to drop off another vehicle and discovered the theft in progress.

One employee contact police while the second employee gave chase in another vehicle, authorities said. The stolen vehicle was driven to a dead-end street, where the dealership employee tried to block the stolen vehicle’s exit. However, police officials said Pickett drove the stolen Infiniti into the employee’s vehicle and then fled the scene.

Police set up a perimeter and deployed a police dog and drones to locate the car thief. At about 2:10 p.m., police located Pickett and took him into custody, police officials said.

Pickett’s next court date is Feb. 26 at the DuPage County courthouse in Wheaton.