Austin, TX - 32 YO. Woman Steals Austin Police Car - Taken Out At Gun Point - Officer's Cell Phone In Her Pocket

Monday, August 3, 2009, 08:34 PM  Cox news

A 32-year-old Austin woman stole a police car Sunday morning and took it for a joy ride for about a mile in South Austin, according to an arrest affidavit.

According to the affidavit, someone called police to report that someone who looked like a 12- or 13-year-old boy wearing a backward baseball cap was playing with the lights of an Austin police car at 4700 South Congress Ave. and causing a traffic hazard as cars slowed to look.

An Austin police officer tracked the vehicle as it moved onto East Stassney Lane, according to the affidavit. Having learned over the police radio that the vehicle had been reported missing, the officer caught up with the police car on Mira Drive, where it was parked in a parking lot but not in a space, according to the report.

With his gun raised, the officer watched Nicole Yvonne Thomas, 32, exit the driver’s seat of the police car, according to the affidavit. Thomas had the cell phone belonging to the officer whose car was stolen in her pocket, according to police.

Thomas at first told the officer she stole the police car because she has had a hard life and doesn’t have anything, and then she said that another police officer told her to steal the car as part of a test, according to the report. If she passed the drill, she would be a cop, she reportedly told the officer.

Thomas told police she started to fear for her life as she passed several “real cops” on her journey.

Thomas was arrested Sunday and charged with theft of property worth more than $20,000, a third degree felony. She is currently being held in the Travis County jail on a $25,000 bond.

Officer Dennis Farris said tonight that the officer whose vehicle was stolen was on a call at the time.
Back