Police: NC man steals plane, crashes it

GRAHAM, N.C. – Authorities are looking to arrest a man they say stole an airplane from a North Carolina airport and crashed it before getting away.

The Alamance County Sheriff's Office said on Wednesday that 46-year-old Curtis Rene Mellott stole the single-engine Piper Saratoga from the Horace Williams Airport in Chapel Hill. They say he crashed it in the woods along a highway about 60 miles west of Raleigh.

One warrant charges Mellott of Chapel Hill with felonious larceny. Another charges him with felonious possession of stolen property.

The plane was stolen between 9 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday and investigators found blood in the cockpit

Mellott was still at large Wednesday afternoon.