Man arrested in snowstorm on pass

A 21-year old man was arrested Tuesday evening, January 8, during a snowstorm on Santiam Pass after he left a stolen car and disappeared up a snow bank.

The man was located after he contacted Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) employees asking to use a phone.

According to Oregon State Police, a trooper and ODOT arrived at approximately 5 p.m. to the scene of a car, a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am, stuck in a snow bank on Highway 20 in the Santiam Pass area. The car, which reportedly nearly hit a couple of ODOT snowplows before getting stuck, had one chain placed on a rear tire of a front wheel drive car. The driver had no identification.

Because the location was on a blind, uphill curve and there was a concern that ODOT and OSP may be hit by approaching vehicles in the snowstorm, ODOT pulled the car out and the driver was instructed to drive to the bottom of the pass and await OSP's arrival. When the trooper arrived where the driver was told to wait, the trooper saw the car was abandoned and the driver had fled up a 12- to 15-foot snow bank.

The trooper pulled two plug wires to prevent the car from being moved from the scene. The trooper followed the snow trail through hip-deep snow to see where the man went but was unable to find him.

An hour later ODOT called and reported the man, identified as Cody Jay Ipoch, age 21, was asking to use their phone. Sergeant MacKenzie and Trooper Belding contacted the man, and he admitted that he had stolen the car. OSP called Prineville Police Department and confirmed it was stolen.

Ipoch, cold and wet, volunteered to be taken back to Prineville where he was lodged for Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle. He was also cited and released for Reckless Driving, Misdemeanor Attempt to Elude on Foot and Failure to Carry a Driver's License.