St. Louis, MO - Female Handcuffed Parolee Violator Steals
Police Car in south St. Louis
04:04 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 12, 2006
(KMOV) --Police in St. Louis are looking for the woman who was taken into
custody, but got away when she slipped behind the wheel of a patrol car and took
off.
It happend at about 1:30 this morning in the 3300 block of Nebraska in South St.
Louis while officers were responding to a call to check out a report of
suspicious persons in the area.
Officers found two women and a man sitting in a van.
Upon further investigation, they discovered one of the women was wanted on a
parole violation.
Police say the 25-year-old was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the rear of
the police vehicle. Seconds later, the suspect slipped out of the handcuffs,
climbed over the front seat and drove off in the police cruiser.
The abandoned police car was recovered a time later in the 900 block of
Cherokee, but there was no sign of the suspect.
Police say the squad car was not damaged, though the officer violated department
policy for leaving the keys in the ignition. Internal affairs is investigating.
Police have yet to locate the suspect.
She is wanted for stealing the cop car and for escaping custody.
Although these
cases are rare, at least one local police department, Jennings, is considering
installing sensors in they're cars that beat officers will have to trigger
before a car can be driven. ( Tremco
System )
This St. Louis police car did not have a cage that would prevent a suspect from
jumping into the front seat, News 4 is told those are mainly reserved for canine
units.