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Michigan high school cheer squad foils hit-and-run with help of chant

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Crime-stopping cheerleaders
Aug. 5: "Today's" Katie Couric talks to a group of Michigan cheerleaders who put their skills to work helping police track down a man suspected in a hit-and-run accident.

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updated 12:59 p.m. ET Aug. 8, 2005

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - A man who left an accident scene was tracked down with the help of some cheerleaders who witnessed the crash and turned his license plate number into a cheer, police said.

Members of the Lincoln High School varsity cheerleading squad from neighboring Ypsilanti were in Ann Arbor for a Universal Cheerleaders Association's camp when they saw the wreck near the University of Michigan campus.

"I knew I was going to not remember it because there was too much going on," coach Patricia Clark said Monday on NBC's "Today." “So, when I ran down the street and got the plate number, I yelled to the girls: ‘Remember this!’ ”"

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The cheerleaders put their skills to work, chanting the license number.

"The coach just said it and we were saying it over and over, and then it just turned into a big chant since we kept repeating it," said Kimmie Ostrowski, a senior captain for the team who also appeared on "Today."

According to police reports, a truck hit a car stopped at a traffic light Wednesday, and the impact forced that car into another vehicle, which then hit another one.

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The truck driver, found at his home, told officers he didn't think the damage was severe enough to stop, police Lt. Mike Logghe told The Ann Arbor News.