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A 1993 plumbing van that was stolen in Steamboat Springs this weekend was involved in a high-speed 60-mile chase in Nevada on Monday afternoon.

Ray Banning, a Steamboat man, reported his 1993 Ford E350 van stolen Monday morning. The van was used for his business, A Plumber, and had been parked in the east side of the Central Park Plaza parking lot during the weekend. A key was left with the vehicle, which was used for working on the nearby construction site.

Within hours of being listed on the national crime database, the van was located in Nevada and had been identified as a vehicle in a high-speed chase.

The van eventually was stopped when officers with the Eureka County Sheriff's Department shot out the rear tires with a 12-gauge shotgun, Steamboat police Captain Joel Rae said. The driver had tried to run sheriff's deputies off the road and was about 20 miles away from a small Nevada town.

The police arrested the driver, Wayne Dennis Snell, a 41-year-old man who was on parole from the Colorado Department of Corrections. Snell lived between Denver and California, and the police are investigating his ties to Steamboat, Rae said.

Snell was arrested on suspicion of four counts of assault with a deadly weapon for trying to run law enforcement officials off the road and for aggravated motor vehicle theft. Snell will be extradited to Steamboat for the theft charge. He remains in jail on a $26,000 bond.

Eureka County Sheriff's Office Lt. Rob Cutler said the van was first spotted at about noon Monday and would not pull over when a Nevada Highway Patrol car started following it. The vehicle crossed into Eureka County where the local sheriff's department took over the case.

Snell drove at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour and traveled for about 60 miles on a two-lane highway. He went through Eureka, a small town with no stop signs or stoplights, at 90 miles per hour, Cutler said.

The sheriff's office laid down two sets of spikes, in an attempt to puncture the tires, but Snell was able to swerve around them.

Snell also tried to run off the road sheriff's deputies who were out in front of the van, Cutler said. Other than the two patrol vehicles with four sheriff's deputies inside them, Cutler said, Snell did not try to run anyone else off the road.

To keep Snell from entering the next small town, Cutler said, the decision was made to shoot out the van's tires. When the tires were shot out, Snell spun out and came to a stop. He was brought out of the van at gunpoint.

Snell did not give any information as to why he led law enforcement on a chase, Cutler said. Besides damage to the two rear tires and a broken side window, the vehicle is in good condition, Cutler said.