HOWICK TOWNSHIP – A Hanover resident was taken into custody by Huron County OPP on Jan. 28 after he was found hiding 30 feet above the ground in a pine tree.

Just before 2 a.m. on Jan. 28, Huron OPP officers responded to a Gorrie Line residence after receiving a call about a suspicious pickup truck that was parked in the laneway.

Upon arrival officers received information from West Grey Police Service that a wanted man may have been operating the vehicle. Huron OPP and Perth County OPP officers began searching for potential suspects and shortly thereafter a set of footprints were picked up by the officers.

Police say they also found a set of animal prints running beside the suspect’s footprints. Officers lost the tracks at one point and it appeared as though the suspect may have been picked up and fled in a motor vehicle. However, police say that luck wasn’t on the criminal’s side as officers picked up the prints again and followed them through a field and along a fence line where they the ultimately came to a stop near a large tree. An observant officer then spotted the suspect hiding way up in the tree.

Police say the suspect was directed out of the tree and he eagerly complied. The cold and shaken suspect advised the officers he was chased by a coyote and he had to climb the tree to avoid an attack.

The accused, a 28-year-old from Hanover, was arrested and transferred into the custody of West Grey Police Service to face a variety of outstanding charges.