Investigators say a Pennsylvania woman who was detained on shoplifting suspicions somehow managed to climb through a police cruiser's glass partition and speed away while she was handcuffed.
What followed was a high-speed chase through several small towns about 40 miles outside Pittsburgh.
According to police in Center Township, Beaver County, a security guard first stopped Roxanne Rimer, 27, at Kohl’s for suspected shoplifting.
Police say she then pushed a security guard and ran from the store to her grandfather's car.
Investigators said she told her grandfather and mother, who was a passenger in the car, to drive away. When they wouldn't, she put her foot on the gas and the car went over a hillside. Police arrived and then put Rimer in handcuffs, but investigators said she continued to act defiantly.
"The officers take her – who's out of control – handcuff her behind her back and put her in one of the police cars,” said Center Township Police Chief Barry Kramer.
Kramer said Rimer climbed through the glass partition and into the driver’s seat, then put the cruiser in gear. She reportedly rammed into multiple vehicles, including another police cruiser, as she led officers on a high-speed chase through Beaver County.
“With her back turned and her hands cuffed behind her back, she manages to put it in gear and drive. And from what we can gather, she drove at very high speeds with that position, somehow manipulating the gears and steering the wheel. Thank God no one else was hurt,” Kramer said.
According to Kramer, Rimer drove down Route 51 at 100 mph with her hands behind her back. She eventually ditched the cruiser and got a ride from another driver, Kramer said.
"She then either jumped out of that vehicle or the vehicle dropped her off in Aliquippa, and Aliquippa police picked her up still in handcuffs,” Kramer said.
Rimer now faces a list of charges, including aggravated assault.
Kramer said they found suspected heroin needles on her.
When WPXI’s Courtney Brennan questioned Rimer about stealing the police cruiser, she responded: “I don’t remember nothing. I don't remember anything but being in the back of a police car."