When Jacksonville police officers arrived Monday at a residence where they believed a man wanted in a series of robberies was staying, a woman standing outside beat on the window and the man slipped out of the back door, a police report said.
Chelsea Megan Walker, 29, told officers that she was not warning John Simpson, who has a warrant out for his arrest in a string of robberies from 2017, according to the police report.
Instead, Walker said she was locked outside the house and needed to get back inside, but officers said Walker had also rented a room for Simpson at the Oxford Inn on South First Street, where several stolen items were later found.
In Walker's front yard, police said, was a stolen Chevrolet Silverado with a stolen lawn mower in the truck bed.
Officers discovered that Simpson had escaped, and they followed him through some woods behind Walker's residence, but lost the trail at a creek, according to the report.
Police documents said the officers could see Simpson's trail end at the water's edge and begin again on the opposite side of the creek, but that officers stopped the chase because the stream was known to be infested with poisonous snakes.
Officers arrested Walker on charges of felony hindering apprehension and theft by receiving. The Jacksonville Police Department transported her to the Pulaski County sheriff's office. Walker had been released by Tuesday evening on $2,500 bond.