Correction This story incorrectly reported some facts regarding a high-speed chase. The chase started in Harris County and ended in Karnes County near Kenedy. A DPS trooper’s report erroneously named the county as Kenedy County.

Stolen identification papers and good interrogation techniques led local officers to file charges on a Mexican national who had led police on a chase from Kenedy County to Harris County earlier this month.

Sgt. Lester Keener of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s motor vehicle theft services said the string of events began on June 3 when a man bailed out of a stolen pickup truck from Houston and ran from a Highway Patrol trooper in Kenedy County.

The man, later identified as Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos of Mexico, fled on foot to the Pawnee area where he ran off the road while being chased by the trooper.

As deputies from Kenedy and Bee counties joined DPS troopers in a search for the fugitive, he ran from the muddy creek area where the stolen vehicle ended up and found his way to a home off FM Road 798 near Pawnee.

Deputy Capt. Dan Caddell said Ramos later admitted that he entered the home and stole a number of items, even while a man napped nearby.

The thief took some jewelry, a wallet, knife, cellular phone and camouflage shirt before the victim woke up and noticed someone had been in the house.

Keener said officers tracking the suspect were almost at the victim’s house when they received a call reporting the burglary. But the fugitive still managed to elude searchers.

Minutes later, also near Pawnee, Ramos found a green Pontiac parked outside the home with the keys in the ignition.

Ramos admitted that he took the car and drove back to Harris County.

In Houston, he ditched the Pontiac and stole a Ford pickup from an apartment complex.

Then, on June 6, Ramos was driving through El Campo when a city officer there called in the license number of the pickup. He tried to stop Ramos after the dispatcher reported that the truck had been stolen in Houston.

Again, Ramos led officers on a high speed chase until he could bail and flee on foot.

Police later found the suspect hiding behind a woodpile in a business neighborhood in El Campo and placed him under arrest.

Caddell said that Keener and BCSO investigator Stephen Martin drove to the Wharton County Jail after officers there discovered that Ramos was carrying a Social Security card and a Blue Cross Blue Shield card bearing the name of the Pawnee man whose home had been burglarized days earlier.

Keener said the two officers were able to get Ramos to confess to the Pawnee burglary and the theft of the Pontiac. He also told investigators where they could find the vehicle he had ditched in Houston.

Keener said the vehicle was recovered and Wharton County deputies served two warrants on Ramos while he was in their jail.

The warrants had been issued by Justice of the Peace Joe Lyvers on charges of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a state jail felony, and burglary of a habitation, a second degree felony.

If convicted of the car theft charge, Ramos could face up to two years in a state jail facility and a fine of as much as $10,000.

A conviction on the burglary charge could get him a 20-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000.

“Bee County is lucky we’ve got good DPS and good sheriff’s office investigators,” Caddell said. Keener and Martin obtained confessions from the suspect, making it more likely that prosecutors can get a conviction when Ramos goes on trial here.

Caddell said the confession was a direct result of “good interrogation techniques.”