On the run: Paroled sex offender Stephen Houk, 46, fled police in a motorhome in LA
California police are hunting a paroled sex offender who led them on an hours-long chase in a motor home with his two young children inside.
Stephen Houk, 46, had taken the three-year-old boy and 11-month-old girl, and fled in the motorhome following a fight with his wife in LA yesterday morning.
After a 100-mile northern freeway drive through the Los Angeles area, police found the children safe in the RV in an orchard north of Bakersfield.
Houk was not inside the motorhome and is still on the run, believed to be armed, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
Houk is a registered sex offender who was on parole following a conviction in Oregon for felony sodomy, records indicated.
The crime involved sex with a child under 14 years old but the circumstances were ‘too egregious to discuss,’ Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Darren Harris told KNBC-TV.
Houk had a fight with his wife in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles on Tuesday morning and apparently took the children, authorities said.
That afternoon, detectives tried to detain the parolee, who was wanted for evading authorities, child abduction, child endangerment and weapons violations, according to a department statement.
That prompted a chase that moved from nearby Hollywood north.
The motor home, a Dolphin 2740 more than 25 feet long with a bicycle strapped to the back, cruised along several freeways at highway speeds.
As many as 15 California Highway Patrol cars followed but didn’t close in following reports that Houk might have a gun and two children were in the vehicle.
Chase: After a a 100-mile northern freeway drive through the Los Angeles area, police found the three-year-old boy and 11-month-old girl safe in the abandoned motor home
During the chase, television reports showed the driver on the phone, with a dog in the seat next to him.
The hours-long pursuit moved onto freeways, including Interstate 5 through the Grapevine and into Bakersfield, some 100 miles away in Kern County, where the RV changed directions several times on State Route 99.
The motor home finally stopped on a road in an orchard north of town where authorities surrounded it.
The children were found safe at around 7:30 p.m. but Houk was not in the motor home, authorities said.
The two children were not harmed, and have been reunited with their mother, local news report.