A body camera video captured Sunday shows a woman stealing a police car and crashing into two trees while behind the wheel.
North County police officers were called to a residential neighborhood in Vinita Park, Missouri, to help with a mental health and substance abuse report, KMOV reported. In the footage shared by the outlet, a barefoot woman can be seen sneaking into the driver’s seat of the patrol car and hitting one tree before reversing the car and crashing into another.
Before jumping into the car, officers told the woman, “Listen you’re not in trouble so just relax,” the outlet noted. Scharell Houston, a neighbor who witnessed the events unfold, took a cell phone video of the woman talking with police, then sprinting toward the station wagon and taking off before the cops could stop her.
“She just bust a quick U-turn and just hopped in the police car,” Houston told the outlet.
Before the incident unfolded, Houston says she spoke to the woman. “She just asked if she could sit down for a moment to get herself together,” Houston said. “Then when she got up she was trying to go into people’s houses and go into people’s cars.”
Police later brought the woman to a psychiatric hospital, KMOV continued. Roughly 75% of the critical intervention treatment calls made to the North County Police result in an individual being transported to the hospital for psychiatric help, the outlet noted, citing local police. (RELATED: Woman In Florida Rammed Into Police Officers, Knocked Over Truck, Throws Rubber Snake At Officers)
The officers involved in the situation noted the woman gave answers to their questions that were “off the wall,” according to a follow-up interview KMOV noted in a separate article. While no one was injured in the ordeal, the patrol car may be out of commission.