If you drive your rental car to rob a house in Garfield County, do not stop for fuel in Gypsum on your way to return it to the Eagle County airport.
Edgar Lukoff is accused of doing all that and more.
Lukoff, 45, of Grand Junction is accused of robbing a house in No Name while the residents were home, says the Colorado State Patrol.
The residents called the police around 11:30 a.m. Police put out a BOLO — Be On The Lookout — for Lukoff and the white rented Toyota Camry he was driving.
Lukoff might have been on his way to the Eagle County Regional Airport where he rented the Camry, Colorado State Patrol Trooper Jake Best said.
“The white Camry was rented in Gypsum. That was a good indicator that he would be headed back east,” Best said.
He was. Lukoff was eastbound on I-70 when he pulled off the highway at the Gypsum exit, where he would get off the highway to get to the airport. He stopped at a gas station and pulled up to a pump. Lukoff looked “surprised” when a State Patrol trooper pulled up behind him and told him he was under arrest, Best said.
“He did not comply,” Best said.
Lukoff jumped back in the rented Camry, dodged a stop stick in the gas station driveway — a device designed to deflate tires — and pulled back onto I-70 eastbound at Gypsum.
The ensuing high-speed chase topped 100 mph as Lukoff weaved through traffic, pursued by three Colorado State Patrol vehicles and two Eagle County Sheriff’s vehicles, Best said.
Lukoff stopped along I-70 before reaching the Eagle exit, about seven miles from Gypsum. He jumped out of this rental car, ran down an embankment, vaulted over a deer fence, ran through the Eagle County fairgrounds and onto a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Eagle River.
As he was running, Lukoff looked back and saw a State Patrol trooper, younger and faster and gaining on him. Lukoff gave up the chase.
Meanwhile, CSP troopers had radioed ahead and were waiting along I-70 with stop sticks and patrol vehicles to intercept him, Best said.
“We’re just happy he was taken into the custody and no one was injured,” Best said.
Lukoff was returned to the Garfield County jail because that’s where the escapade started. So far, Garfield County authorities plan to charge him with burglary for the No Name robbery, as well as vehicular eluding and reckless driving in Eagle County, Best said.
