Boston - Transit Police Car Stolen from repair garage by Drunken Homeless man - 1hr of Lights and Sirens

Chugging vodka, and yelling “Pull over!” - a homeless man playing policeman hijacked an unattended cruiser and raced around the city with flashing lights and wailing sirens until the real cops slammed the brakes on his joy ride, police said.

Sgt. Smirnoff
Car 7089 where are you?

It took transit police at least an hour to locate Car 7089 with cop wannabe Jeffrey P. Jarosz at the wheel, and only after other motorists - apparently doubting the apparently drunken 51-year-old suspect was connected to law enforcement - called 911.

Now Jarosz - who has a long record of bad behavior - is back on the wrong end of the legal system, held on $100,000 bail after being charged in Brighton District Court on charges of drunken driving, impersonating a police officer and stealing a motor vehicle.

And the MBTA police are reassessing where they leave the keys to cruisers.

Jarosz’s adventure began Tuesday afternoon, when he allegedly jumped behind the wheel of the marked cruiser being repaired at Cabot Garage in South Boston and sped off with a bottle of Smirnoff vodka in hand.

“Witnesses stated he had lights and sirens on and he was behind the wheel pointing and yelling at people to pull over,” said Suffolk district attorney spokesman David Procopio.

Police received several 911 calls about the erratic “cop,” including one from a driver who “did not believe that Mr. Jarosz was in fact a police officer,” Procopio said.

“He stopped and called the real police,” Procopio said.

“Another witness said he saw Mr. Jarosz drinking vodka in the car. Several witnesses said he was using lights and sirens and telling people to pull over.”

He was busted in Allston on the corner of Franklin and Bradbury streets around 5 p.m. that night after he blew out one of cruiser No. 7089’s tires.

He was standing next to the cruiser with the Smirnoff bottle nearby still shouting commands when T police arrived to retrieve the agency’s marked vehicle, officials said.

T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said that Jarosz located the keys to the marked cruiser because it was slated to be picked up by MBTA cops that night.

“We have already changed our procedures for picking up cruisers,” Pesaturo said yesterday. “The incident remains under investigation.”

Jarosz has been busted seven times for driving while intoxicated and was driving on a suspended license, Procopio said. Jarosz, who told police he lives at the Pine Street Inn, has a long rap sheet for assaults and other alcohol-related offenses.

He refused to take a field sobriety test at the scene, Pesaturo said. It remains unclear exactly how long the cruiser was missing, but Pesaturo said T officials believe it was gone for about an hour.

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