According to police, an officer saw what he thought was a fight brewing in front of South Bar, 201 S. Old Woodward, at around 2 a.m. Oct. 31. After alerting his fellow officers of the activity by radio, the officer quickly got out of his car, which he left running across the street on S. Old Woodward, to try to defuse the situation before it escalated. Soon after, another officer appeared on the scene to help.
After the two officers separated the parties and determined that everything was under control, a patron informed them that someone had just driven away in one of the police cars and was last seen traveling down Merrill Street.
“Our cars have tracking systems in them, so the dispatcher was watching where he was going, the only problem is, it’s a couple seconds behind,” Birmingham Police Cmdr. Terry Kiernan said.
The suspect ended his joyride after pulling the police car into an alley across from the police station on Martin Street and slamming it into a cement post.
“This whole thing lasted less than 60 seconds,” Kiernan said. “We haven’t gotten the estimates back, but there is a lot of damage to the car.”
The alley did not show up on the tracking map, according to police, so by the time officers discovered the car, the suspect had fled the scene on foot. However, the suspect was captured on surveillance camera, police said.
The case remains under investigation.