Kentucky Drunken Female Steals Deputy’s Patrol Car
01/13/05
By Owen Covington
Messenger-Inquirer
In an act reminiscent of Houdini, a woman arrested by a Daviess County sheriff's deputy Wednesday and placed handcuffed in the back seat of his patrol cruiser was able to free herself enough to steal the car.
Odessa Pace, 25, of the 3800 block of Benttree Drive was pulled over by Kentucky State Police troopers while driving Deputy Troy Calvert's cruiser about two miles from the home where Calvert had arrested her.
According to Capt. David Osborne with the sheriff's department, Calvert responded to call to a residence in the 2500 block of Browns Valley-Red Hill Road about 10 a.m. to assist a state trooper who'd received a call to check on someone's welfare.
While talking with Pace in the front yard of the residence, Calvert spotted what he thought were drugs in her purse, Osborne said.
Calvert found methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription drugs in her purse and placed her in his cruiser after charging her with first-degree possession of a controlled substance, third-degree possession of a controlled substance and two misdemeanor drug charges, Osborne said.
Calvert handcuffed Pace's hands behind her back and placed her in the rear of the car. The center shield separating the back seat from the front was raised, Osborne said.
When Pace told Calvert she was hot, he started his cruiser and turned on the air conditioning, Osborne said.
"He did the same thing all of us do," Osborne said.
During a period of less than five minutes, while Calvert and two troopers were inside the home to conduct a search, Pace was left unattended and was able to escape in the cruiser, Osborne said.
During that time, Pace slipped her cuffed hands from behind her back and reached under the shield into the side the driver's compartment, Osborne said.
In doing so, she released a latch on a moveable window in the center of the shield that can be lowered, he said. She was then able to crawl through the window into the driver's compartment and drive off, Osborne said.
"This is a very small woman," Osborne said. "With a normal-sized person, it is pretty unlikely they'd be able to do this."
Calvert discovered his cruiser was missing within minutes of Pace's escape and alerted the troopers and the Daviess County dispatch center.
Sheriff's department cruisers are equipped with mobile data terminals, which include global positioning units that enabled dispatchers to track the exact location of Calvert's cruiser, Osborne said.
The two state troopers pulled Pace over down the road just a few minutes later and placed her into custody.
"She didn't get very far," Calvert said. "Hopefully, this isn't a good indicator of what we use GPS for."
Pace was charged with driving under the influence, theft of a motor vehicle and fleeing and evading police.
Osborne said Calvert did everything by the book in the incident, and the incident Wednesday was just a "freak thing."
"Troy Calvert is very safety conscious, and he didn't violate any procedures we have," he said.
Calvert said he checked the shield in the window of his cruiser after the incident to make certain it is working properly. Calvert said he and another deputy attempted to escape from the rear of his cruiser but were unable to duplicate Pace's feat.
"In this particular incident, I don't know what else could have been done," Calvert said. "I don't know how she did it."