ROLAND — Three Story City juveniles who were arrested Friday after stealing a car and leading police on a cat-and-mouse chase through a nearby cornfield have each been charged with second degree theft, a class D felony.

Jonathan Lee Polmanter, 16, and two female juveniles, ages 14 and 15, are accused of stealing a 1987 maroon Chevrolet Celebrity registered to Phil Leeman, 417 South Linn St., Roland. The car had been left with the keys in the ignition.

After Leeman’s son pursued the teenagers in his car, the three juveniles abandoned the stolen car near the Roland Sewage Lagoon and fled into a cornfield at approximately 2:12 p.m.

“We have the cornfield surrounded, and we’re going to see what we can do,” Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said near the field, located less than two miles west of Roland at the corner of State Highway 221 and 590th Avenue.

The two females were apprehended by Story County officials at 3:05 p.m. after they were found hiding in the bushes in an adjacent soybean field.

The girls, one with strawberry blond hair pulled back in a pink scrunchie, and the second with braids and a blue bandanna, sat solemnly in separate police cars, while officials combed the cornfield in search of the driver.

“The two young females are not cooperating or giving us much information,” said Story County Deputy Jerry Spencer, as one of the girls made lewd gestures at a KCCI Channel 8 cameraman.

At 4:21 p.m., a helicopter from Mercy Medical Center of Des Moines arrived at the scene of the manhunt, carrying Sgt. Dave Lekwa of the Story County Sheriff’s Department.

The helicopter hovered over the field, while officers on all-terrain vehicles and a K9 unit searched for Polmanter through the maze of corn stalks, which towered more than six feet.

Officials used a thermal imager to track the boy but had no luck.

“The problem we’re going to have is that the heat bounces back off the leaves of the corn,” said Story County Deputy Sheriff Scott Madison.

After nearly three hours of fruitless searching, Story County officials received a 911 call from a Roland resident who knew of Polmanter’s location.

Story County officials arrested Polmanter at 5:20 p.m. at the home of Jerry Dunn, 218 South Green St., Roland.

“That’s about as much excitement as there’s been on my street in awhile,” said neighbor Nancy Henderson, 206 South Green St.

Officials said they are not sure how Polmanter made it back to Roland after roaming through the cornfield.

“He may have had an opportunity to slip out before we got enough deputies there to surround the field,” Fitzgerald said.

Polmanter and the female juveniles are being held at the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in Eldora, Capt. Gary Foster of the Story County Sheriff’s Department said Monday.

Adults who face class D felony charges can serve terms of up to five years in prison, Foster said. Since the three individuals are all juveniles, punishment will be different, he said. There is a possibility Polmanter may be tried as an adult, Foster said.

One of the girls arrested Friday was also involved in a high-speed chase Thursday in Story and Hamilton Counties, in which Polmanter’s older brother, Alan Polmanter, 18, was the driver of the car.

Alan Polmanter is currently being held in the Story County Jail, officials said.