Police Car Taken on Joyride
(St. Johns, Canada) - The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has charged a Corner Brook resident after a police patrol car was stolen and taken on a joyride through the streets of St. John's.
The RNC said an officer had pursued a 14-year-old Buick Skylark on Cornwall Avenue on Tuesday afternoon after noticing it was in poor condition.
The car was found unoccupied in a driveway, and the police asked a man found in the area to get in the patrol car's back seat. The RNC said the man told the officer that the Buick wasn't in gear and in danger of rolling down an embankment.
When the officer left the patrol car, the man jumped into the driver's seat and speeded away, the RNC said.
"He proceeded from Cornwall Ave onto Amherst Heights, where he drove the car through a garden and into a tree," Const. Paul Davis said in a statement.
"The [man] then fled on foot, but was located and arrested a short time later in the Topsail Road area."
The police have charged Peter Brown, 34, with theft over $5,000, dangerous driving, impaired driving and property damage, and with breaching an undertaking.