A high school teacher in Southern California allegedly held a group of three students at knifepoint and demanded he be driven to a fast-food restaurant, reports NBC Los Angeles.
John Edward Maust, a 34-year-old teacher at Arroyo Pacific Academy in Arcadia, is charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and making criminal threats, and is being held on $100,000 bail.
It all started on Saturday night, when the trio of students were driving and saw their teacher on a street corner, according to the sheriff’s office. Maust asked for a ride, and the students agreed. That’s when the trouble started, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Moore.
“They immediately noticed that he was intoxicated,” Moore said in the report. “They didn’t feel safe. They got out of the car and he ordered them back into the car.”
When the students got back in the car, Maust allegedly pulled a knife on them and demanded they drive him to a Jack in the Box restaurant.
While they were driving, one of the students managed to call the police, and a sheriff’s department helicopter began tailing the car from overhead. When Maust saw the helicopter, he reportedly “bailed from the car and fled on foot,” according to officials.
Maust surrendered the following day at the Altadena Sheriff’s Station, and was arrested without incident.
Photo: Reuters
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