A Smiths Grove man faces multiple charges after a Barren County Sheriff’s Office pursuit ended when the man’s car got stuck in a ditch.

Matthew W. Ayala, 35, 265 Goldenrod Lane, was arrested at 5:49 p.m. Tuesday on Crump Road after failing to stop for deputies who began pursuing him on Apple Grove Road, according to his arrest citation.

Deputies were called to Apple Grove Road about an old police car that had been sitting on someone’s farm property. The caller told a dispatcher that the driver of the old police car asked to search the toolbox on his truck and the caller told the driver no. A deputy saw the car traveling west on Apple Grove Road down the center of the road, according to the citation.

As a deputy got close to the car, the driver did not signal and turned right on Crump Road. The deputy activated his lights and siren, but the vehicle continued going and the deputy could see the driver moving around on the front seat while continuing to drive, according to the citation.

Two deputies began following the car that turned left into a driveway at 265 Goldenrod Lane, barely missing a UPS truck and entering a ditch on the left side of the drive, where the car got stuck.

Ayala was taken into custody and told a deputy he was high, according to the arrest citation. Inside the car, deputies found small sandwich bags that contained a white powdery substance that field tested positive for methamphetamine. Deputies also found a loaded handgun, a set of digital scales and two separate bags of suspected marijuana, according to the arrest citation.

Ayala was charged with first-degree fleeing or evading police; operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs-aggravating circumstance; first-degree possession of a controlled substance, second offense; possession of marijuana, possession of a drug paraphernalia; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; failure to wear seat belts; tampering with physical evidence and failure to or improper signal.