ROLAND, IOWA — Three Story City juveniles were arrested by Story County deputies Friday on charges of stealing a car, then leading police on a cat-and-mouse chase through a nearby cornfield.

Jonathan Lee Polmanter, age 16, and two female juveniles are accused of stealing a 1987 maroon Chevy Celebrity licensed to Phil Leeman, 417 South Linn St., Roland.

After Leeman’s son pursued the teenagers, the three juveniles abandoned the 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 Friday, 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 after hiding in bushes in an adjacent soybean field.

The girls, one with strawberry blond hair pulled back in a pink scrunchie, and a second with braids and a blue bandana, 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 is currently being held at the Story County Sheriff’s Office. Fitzgerald said he will most likely be transferred to a juvenile detention facility in Eldora.

There have been no charges filed against Polmanter or the female juveniles at this time.

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, age 18, was the driver of the car.

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