"You're in big, big trouble," CHP Officer Todd Fetterly said, as he escorted a hand-cuffed Julianna Walker, 21, to the back seat of the patrol car she had allegedly stolen and drove off in moments before.
Friday was Walker's 21st birthday and she was reportedly singing "Happy Birthday" to herself as officers transported her from one patrol car to another on Cypress Avenue.
Fetterly said he took her into custody at Idora and Pine streets in South Vallejo about 10:30 a.m. after he spotted her driving a Toyota pickup the wrong way on the side of Pine Street.
A background check showed she had three outstanding "no bail" warrants, he said.
Fetterly added she appeared to be under the influence of methamphetamine.
The officer placed her into the back seat of his patrol car which he had left running, and was standing outside the car completing paperwork when she slipped out of her hand restraints climbed into the front seat and drove the vehicle away, Officer Patty Rodriguez said.
The woman drove a few blocks and abandoned the patrol car on westbound Curtola Parkway across the street from a bus station, Fetterly said. She then jumped over a fence and hid in some bushes adjacent to Cypress Avenue, where officers found her.