‘Bonnie and Clyde’ teen couple captured after ‘crime spree across America’

A TEEN couple who allegedly stole cars and robbed homes during a two-week ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ crime spree have been arrested.

In this January 2015 photo made from surveillance video and released by the Grayson County Sheriff's Office, in Kentucky, 18-year-old Dalton Hayes and 13-year-old Cheyenne Phillips leave a South Carolina Wal-Mart. Authorities are looking for the teenage couple from central Kentucky who are suspected in a multistate crime spree. (AP Photo/Wal-Mart Inc. via The Grayson County (Ky.) Sheriff's Office)

A TEENAGE couple who allegedly stole cars and robbed homes during a two-week ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ crime spree across the US have been arrested.

Police had been looking for 18-year-old Dalton Hayes and his 13-year-old girlfriend Cheyenne Phillips after they allegedly stole at least two vehicles, cashed stolen cheques and robbed homes.

US media outlets had described the couple as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, the Depression-era lovebird outlaws.

Surveillance footage ... Dalton Hayes and Cheyenne Phillips leave a South Carolina Wal-Mart. Picture: AP Photo/Wal-Mart Inc. via The Grayson County (Kentucky) Sheriff's Office

Caught on camera ... Dalton Hayes and Cheyenne Phillips walk into a South Carolina Wal-Mart. Picture: AP Photo/Wal-Mart Inc. via The Grayson County (Kentucky) Sheriff's Office

Phillips was reported missing on January 3 by her father in Grayson, Kentucky, and was spotted with Hayes nine days later in a Wal-Mart in Manning, South Carolina, about 750 kilometres away.

“I think it started as a game or something funny,” Sheriff Norman Chaffins told NBC News. “So far, they’ve committed crimes in four states. We don’t think it’s funny.”

Hayes’ mother, Tammy Martin, said the couple began dating three months ago, but she didn’t know Phillips was just 13.

Dalton Hayes and Cheyenne Phillips stand at a check-out station at a South Carolina Wal-Mart. Picture: AP Photo/Wal-Mart Inc. via The Grayson County (Kentucky) Sheriff's Office

Dalton Hayes, 18, poses in a room of his family's home in Leitchfield, Kentucky. Picture: AP Photo/Tammy Martin

According to a statement from the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office, the couple was arrested early on Sunday by authorities in Panama City Beach, Florida. They had been found asleep in a pick-up truck that had been stolen in Georgia, the statement read.

“It should be noted that throughout the multistate hunt for them, no civilian was injured, neither one of them were injured and no police officer was injured,” the statement added.

Found ... Dalton Hayes and Cheyenne Phillips were found asleep in this pick-up truck that had been stolen in Georgia. Picture: AP Photo/Wal-Mart Inc via The Grayson County (Kentucky) Sheriff's Office

Chaffins said Hayes faces a sentence of one to five years for a felony burglary charge for which he is on bond and was also a suspect in another burglary.

He could also be charged over his relationship with underage Phillips. It is not clear if Phillips faces charges.