PANAMA CITY — A Kentucky teenager charged with taking his 13-year-old girlfriend on a car-snatching spree said he regretted not just paying for a bus ticket instead.
Dalton Hayes, 18, was being held without bond Monday in the Bay County Jail as a fugitive from justice. Authorities arrested him and his 13-year-old girlfriend, Cheyenne Phillips, late Saturday night after an alleged crime spree of stolen vehicles and pilfered checks. Hayes awaited extradition to Leitchfield, Ky., to face a litany of charges after a series of near run-ins with law enforcement, according to jail officials.
During a jailhouse interview with The News Herald on Monday, Hayes said the couple set out initially to get away from his girlfriend’s family — not as an attempt to emulate one of the most famous fugitive couples in American history, Bonnie and Clyde.
“It ain’t like we were killing cops and robbing stores,” Hayes said of the comparison to Bonnie and Clyde. “We just went on a few high-speed chases.”
However, the allegedly law-breaking sweethearts received the designation from numerous media outlets as news of their exploits spread nationally.
The couple’s capture began about 11:30 p.m. Saturday night when authorities descended on a stolen silver 2001 Toyota Tacoma, according to Panama City Beach Police Department records. Hayes and Phillips were sleeping inside the truck, which was parked in front of the Kirkland’s at Pier Park off U.S. 98, police reported.
Spotted: Earlier that afternoon, local residents spotted the couple shopping at nearby retailers. Steve Colford was one of the first to recognize the young fugitives from stories circulating on the Internet, so he alerted police to their whereabouts.
Colford still wasn’t positive it was them. The two looked identical to released pictures, but the pink and brown boots Phillips wore in one of the pictures — the exact same as the girl exiting Target at Pier Park — was the tipoff for the Navy dive instructor, he said.
“I questioned it and kept looking at the picture, but it kind of made sense,” Colford said. “If I was teenager on the run, I’d come to Panama City Beach.”
Police confirmed Colford’s suspicions and moved into place by about 11:30 p.m. Saturday before springing their trap. Hayes was taken to the Bay County Jail without incident, while Phillips was placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families to be taken to back to Kentucky.
During a brief hearing Monday, Hayes signed paperwork clearing the way for his return to Kentucky.
Hayes speaks out: Hayes and Phillips began their run from the law and their families earlier this month when they vanished from their small hometown in western Kentucky. Hayes said their nearly two weeks on the lam took them to South Carolina, Georgia and included a night of trying to camp out in a frigid barn before heading for warmer climates.
The plan was to make it to Miami, he said. That’s as far ahead as the two plotted their course.
When he hit the road, Hayes was running away from trouble back home. He faces burglary and theft charges in his home county, stemming from an arrest late last year, according to Grayson County, Kentucky, court records. Phillips was running from an abusive relative, Hayes said.
“I couldn’t set her out to fend on her own,” he said.
Twice, the teens were able to evade law officers in Kentucky, officials said. They crashed the first truck they stole and hid in the woods. The two were able to get another vehicle and successfully outmaneuvered law enforcement during their first high-speed pursuit in South Carolina, Hayes said.
Authorities believe they then headed to Georgia and stole a pickup truck from the driveway of a man’s home, about 30 miles southeast of Atlanta. The homeowner said he kept two handguns inside the vehicle that was stolen, according to police reports.
However, Hayes said the two never intended to hurt anyone.
Hayes said he was unaware of Phillips’ young age until days before they set out, and, though he mostly attributed her will to leave as the initiation of the crime spree, Hayes said he wouldn’t change most parts of that plan.
“All I had to do was tell her to go home and none of this would’ve happened, but it’s hard to tell someone getting beat on to go home,” Hayes said. “I’d do that the same. … But, if I could go back, I’d be paying for bus rides instead of stealing trucks.”