Two US teens on run in cross-country crime spree

Police in the southern state of Kentucky said Friday they are looking for 18-year-old Dalton Hayes and his 13-year-old girlfriend Cheyenne Phillips after they stole as many as three cars, some with firearms in them.

Phillips was reported missing on January 3 by her father in Grayson, Kentucky, and was spotted with Hayes nine days later in a Walmart in Manning, South Carolina, about 470 miles (750 kilometers) away.

The Bonnie and Clyde-like duo left the scene in a stolen red 2006 Toyota Tacoma, which had a gun inside it when it was taken.

Police said they were next seen some 250 miles away in Henry County, Georgia, where they ditched the Tacoma and stole another car, which was carrying two handguns.

It is not clear when they might have picked up a third car, but police officials said they were suspects in three separate car thefts.

Hayes — six years older than Phillips — is also wanted for custodial interference.

Police warned the couple could be dangerous and said they were becoming more daring as they made their way across the country.

“It is imperative that these two be located and apprehended as their behavior is becoming increasingly brazen and dangerous,” the Grayson County Sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“Both have managed to flee police on at least two occasions and are certainly considered flight risks if stopped by anyone.”

Grayson County Sheriff Norman Chaffins told AFP that a credible tip indicated they were last spotted in Florida, and that people across the United States had called in to help.

Some tipsters had called in from as far away as the West Coast. (AFP)