Stolen car recovered in Grayson

Two Alleghany County teens were arrested last Thursday after fleeing from police through Galax and Grayson County, Va. in a stolen car. The two men, James Clifton Shaw, 17, and Joshua Mckinley Ring, 16, were both captured in Grayson County near the former Parkway Antiques location after ditching the vehicle in a driveway on Fairview Road just off Va. 89.

Shaw was charged with larceny of a motor vehicle, while Ring was charged with probation violations for leaving the state of North Carolina. Ring was not charged in connection with the alleged theft. In Virginia, Ring was charged with receiving stolen property.

Shaw was charged with attempting to elude a police officer, a felony; along with failure to stop for an officer, reckless driving, receiving stolen property and driving without a license.

The incident began when Shaw allegedly took his uncle's 1982 Mercury Marquis at about 8:30 a.m. and went to Alleghany High School. His uncle, Rigoberto Rosales Lira, who lives at the same residence, was told by deputies from the Alleghany County Sheriff's Department that the car was in Shaw's possession. Lira did not give permission to use the car, according to a report by Capt. Carlton Edwards.

Subsequently, Ring got into the vehicle at the high school and the two teens left together.

The vehicle next was spotted in Ashe County, where the driver spun up a parking lot and a woman's yard. No information on charges in Ashe County were available as of presstime.

The pair then apparently traveled to Galax.

Around 11:40 a.m., Galax Police Lt. James Cox spotted the 1989 Mercury Marquis "operating in a reckless manner" in the city, according to a Galax Police Department press release.

Police had already gotten a ‘be-on-the-lookout' report from Alleghany County authorities on the car.

Cox attempted to stop the car after it turned onto Center Street, but the driver tried to elude Cox and Investigator Ron Houk by fleeing the city south on Main Street.

The chase led south on Va. 89 into Grayson County.

Cox and Houk apprehended the pair when they abandoned the Mercury to flee on foot after running the vehicle into a bank near a driveway on Fairview Road.

Police discovered that the vehicle, which had an estimated value of $500, had been stolen from Shawtown Road in Glade Valley and that the Alleghany County Sheriff's Office was searching for it.

Shaw is being held in the New River Valley Detention Center in Christiansburg, Va. pending an appearance in Galax Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Ring was released by Virginia authorities to his grandparents, Clark said.

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