A stolen vehicle was recovered Monday and an area man arrested after a brief manhunt in southeast Barton County, the Barton County Sheriff’s Office reports.
Undersheriff Larry Holliday said a deputy saw a small blue pickup parked in a field drive on Dartmouth Road (SE 60 Ave.), just south of SE 30 Road, shortly before 4 p.m. The deputy stopped expecting to offer routine assistance to the driver, but soon learned the vehicle matched one reportedly stolen from Sedgwick County.
The driver, later identified as Bobby Stark,  26, from the Great Bend area, ran into a shelter belt. BCSO officers and the Kansas Highway Patrol set up a perimeter and brought the KHP aircraft and Barton County K9 unit to the scene. Stark was found lying in a CRP field about half a mile from where he was first contacted.
Holliday said he did not know why the pickup was stopped. Stark was arrested and booked into the Barton County Jail on charges of felony obstruction and possession of stolen property. He was also booked on two outstanding no-bond warrants through Barton County District Court and Great Bend Municipal Court.
Other records show an officer from the Park City Police Department contacted Barton County at 5:41 a.m. Saturday to report a multi-county pursuit of Stark.
The investigation is ongoing.