(La Porte, IN) - A man on a go-cart wound up in an ultimately futile foot chase in a La Porte neighborhood last night.

 

Eric Powell, 43, has been charged in La Porte Circuit Court with Level 6 Felony Possession of Methamphetamine, as well as other counts including Misdemeanor Resisting Law Enforcement.

 

Around midnight, police said, an officer spotted a go-cart southbound on Lawrence St. and the driver, after seeing the officer, locked the brakes and turned before stopping when the engine died on Jefferson Avenue.

 

Powell was trying to restart the engine when the approaching officer asked what he was doing. According to court documents, Powell kept placing his hands in and out of his pockets despite commands to keep them in plain view.  Eventually Powell, when allegedly found with a plastic baggie containing more than three grams of meth, took off running.

 

The foot chase went between several houses before Powell was grabbed outside of a home in the 600 block of Lawrence Street. Powell also tripped, causing him to break a railing, a plexiglass window and flower pot.  The officer had to apply force to place him into handcuffs, and a search of his backpack allegedly turned up a glass smoking pipe.