A man facing charges of eluding the local RCMP at least three times was found hiding under basement stairs by the police dog Monday evening.

Tyrell Mark Sidney, 24, was arrested in a McClennan Road home about an hour after a passerby spotted him walking on a McIntyre subdivision street at 6 p.m.

The homeowners let police in to conduct a search, Whitehorse RCMP Sgt. John Sutherland said this morning.

Police dog Justice and his handler, Cpl. Rod Hamilton, discovered the young man concealed in the basement.

Sidney was wanted on numerous arrest warrants and had been evading police for some time, police said in a news release.

The young man, wanted for three separate police chases and an armed robbery, made his first court appearance earlier this afternoon.

Sidney joins a relative and co-accused, Sasha Sidney, in custody for an armed robbery reported to the RCMP four days after it was said to have occurred on Feb. 2.

The victim, a male who knows the two Sidneys, was staying at a Takhini trailer park home when he was robbed of a frying pan and cordless phone with a handgun pointed at him.

Police have said it's not believed the altercation was drug-related or part of an ongoing dispute.

Other people were in the home at the time, but neither they nor the complainant had been drinking, though the assailants were, police said.

If convicted, Sidney faces a four-year stint in a federal penitentiary for the armed robbery charge. Robbery committed with a gun carries a four-year mandatory minimum in the Criminal Code.

Though they'd been looking for him since January, the Whitehorse RCMP took the unusual step of issuing a notice Feb. 19 asking for the public's help to catch Sidney.

He'd eluded police last September following a vehicle pursuit, but was arrested hours later when he called police to report his vehicle had been stolen. An RCMP dispatcher kept the man on the phone line while officers drove to his house to pick him up.

He was scheduled to be on trial for that matter in late January, but never showed up for court.

Police had already been looking for Sidney before then, but he'd evaded them again. The young man faces charges of fleeing police and dangerous driving from Jan. 10 and Jan. 21.