Man jailed for stealing SUV in Naperville, evading cops in Wisconsin
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com December 21, 2012 9:26PM
Svoboda
Updated: January 27, 2013 6:17AM
A man who stole a sport utility vehicle last fall in Naperville and then led Wisconsin police on a 25-mile, 113-mph chase has been sentenced to jail in that case.
Nicholas C. Svoboda, 19, of Cary, pleaded guilty in a Rock County, Wis. courtroom to felony charges of taking and driving a vehicle without consent and fleeing and eluding a police officer while being a vehicle operator.
A judge accepted Svoboda’s plea and sentenced him Tuesday to six months in Rock County Jail on each charge, according to court records.
Svoboda has been in the jail since being arrested. His sentences are to run concurrently.
The judge also ordered Svoboda to pay $11,787.13 in restitution, fines and court costs.
Additionally, court records indicated Svoboda faces extradition to McHenry County to stand trial for two burglaries he allegedly committed there. He is also wanted in near-west suburban Northlake on unspecified criminal charges.
Svoboda and his girlfriend, Brittany T. Featherling, were arrested just before 4 a.m. Oct. 21 near Stoughton, Wis., after stealing a silver, 2004 Toyota Highlander several hours earlier from the parking lot of the Villages of West Glen. The condominium complex lies at the southwest corner of 75th Street and Modaff Road in central Naperville.
Naperville police reported the theft to other law enforcement agencies via a bulletin. A Rock County deputy sheriif spotted the SUV while on patrol near Janesville, Wis.
Svoboda eventually drove west on Interstate 90, “accelerated to a speed over 100 mph” and quickly “reached a top speed of 113 mph,” according to a written criminal complaint. The Highlander passed a semi tractor trailer at 110 mph.
Police placed spiked “stop sticks” on the pavement in the SUV’s path. Svoboda ran over one set of the sticks but continued driving on the rims of his flattened tires at approximately 110 mph, the complaint stated.
The Highlander eventually hit a mailbox and curb and came to a halt outside a house near Stoughton. Svoboda and Featherling ran from the SUV and were shortly thereafter found hiding beneath the home’s back yard deck.
Police said the 24.6-mile chase lasted 20 minutes.
Featherling, 20, of Chicago, was extradited Dec. 13 to Delaware County, Ohio, where she is to stand trial for violating terms of her probation on charges of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle.
She is also wanted by authorities in Northlake.
