By Nathan Pynn
This is the dramatic moment an armed cop borrowed a teenager’s bicycle to chase after a prolific thief.
The officer was running after shoplifter Phillip Padgett after he was spotted stealing steaks from a supermarket.
Bodycam footage shows the cop struggling to keep up with the 32-year-old crook as he fled through an estate in South Shields, in Tyneside.
(Northumbria Police via SWNS)
Armed cops scrambled to the scene on June 7 after receiving reports of a man acting aggressively at a supermarket on Stanhope Road.
As the thief appeared to be getting away, the officer quickly stopped a teenage boy who was riding past.
He tells the lad: “Give us your bike, I’m chasing a thief. I’ll be two minutes.”
The suspect received jail time. (Northumbria Police via SWNS)
The boy replies: “Two minutes? Okay.”
Footage shows the cop cycle after Padgett who had earlier thrown three stolen steaks into a hedge.
He was caught minutes later and bodycam shows him being handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.
Padgett, of no fixed address, admitted more than 30 counts of shoplifting with a total value of almost $6,000.
He was jailed for 40 weeks at South Tyneside Magistrates' Court.