Police say missing motorcyle incident is suspicious, but not illegal

Polk County police are still baffled by the story of a youth who claims he was injured in a motorcycle accident.

Officer Joe Weldon said no one was charged in a case that happened on his patrol on July 15, but he labeled it as “suspicious activity.”

Weldon was on patrol on when he noticed a gold Chrysler Sebring in the Burton’s Store parking lot on Rome Highway.

“As I got closer to the car, I saw what appeared to be two legs hanging out of the driver’s side rear door,” Weldon wrote in his report.

A teen lying in the car asked the officer to call an ambulance because he had road rash on his legs and he thought he might also have broken his right foot.

The 16-year-old told the officer he was in a motorcycle accident on Portland Circle near Formby Trail. Two friends got the bike out of the road and took it back to his house, he said.

His friends were carrying him to the hospital but ran out of gas and went walking to find gas.

Another officer went to find the teen’s mother and have her meet EMS personnel at Burton’s to accompany her son to the hospital.

Redmond EMS treated what they could without consent. After waiting more than an hour for the mother to show, EMS crews transported the teen to Floyd Medical Center.

Officers attempted to contact the owner of the vehicle, but were unsuc- cessful and had it towed. Weldon went to the boy’s home and spoke to the mother, who said she was still looking for a ride to the hospital. Weldon told her the case would be turned over to the Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) if she failed to show at the hospital within a reasonable time.

Weldon said in an interview that he didn’t know if DFCS was ever called.

As Weldon questioned the mother, the woman said her son didn’t own a motorcycle and she didn’t know of anyone with a motorcycle. Weldon said no motorcycle was ever found.

Weldon left the home and traveled down Portland Road where he saw a couple walking and recognized one of them as a friend the youth had mentioned.

The two told the officer the teen came to the friend’s grandfather’s house bleeding asking to be taken to the hospital after wrecking a motorcycle. The girl couldn’t contact the teen’s mother so she agreed to take him, but ran out of gas at Burton’s Store. The two then said they had to walk six to eight miles inside Floyd County before they found a store to get gas and their vehicle was gone when they returned to Burton’s.

Both said they never saw a motorcycle and don’t know where their friend would have found one.

Weldon told them their car was impounded and what they needed to do to pick it up.

Police filed the report and ended the investigation.