A 41-year-old Hillsboro woman has been arrested for allegedly stealing and crashing a Missouri State Highway Patrol cruiser, Cpl. Dallas Thompson said.
The vehicle was stolen Feb. 26 near De Soto, and the woman was arrested on March 4 in Conway, Ark. Authorities are waiting for her to be transported to Missouri to seek charges against her, Thompson said Monday (March 8).
The patrol vehicle was stolen after a trooper found the woman on Center Drive near De Soto following an accident involving a vehicle that was suspected of being stolen.
The trooper had handcuffed the woman and put her in the front passenger seat of his cruiser, but she slipped out of the handcuffs, got into the cruiser’s driver’s seat and drove away, striking the trooper with the vehicle in the process, Thompson said.
He said the trooper suffered minor injuries to one of his legs, but as of Monday, he had been cleared to resume light duty with the patrol.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies pursued the stolen cruiser, which the woman crashed off Hardin Road near the St. Francois County line, but the woman ran away and escaped arrest, Thompson said.
He said the cruiser was totaled.
The Highway Patrol will seek charges against the woman, for at least first-degree assault and tampering with a motor vehicle, Thompson said.
Cruiser stolen in St. Charles County
The theft of the cruiser on Feb. 26 was the second time in a week a woman stole a Highway Patrol vehicle, authorities reported.
On Feb. 20, Heather Rene Nesler, 32, of St. Charles was arrested for allegedly stealing a cruiser after a trooper stopped a Nissan that reportedly was speeding west on I-70 near Hwy. K in St. Charles County.
Nesler, who was a passenger in the car, already was wanted on several outstanding warrants, so she was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car. However, she complained the handcuffs were hurting her and said she needed something from her purse, so the trooper loosened her handcuffs and went to get her purse, according to the report.
Nesler then drove away in the cruiser, which was found abandoned with the engine running in the parking lot of an American Legion Post on Westridge Road in O'Fallon. St. Charles County deputies arrested Nesler the same day in the 700 block of Cole Street after finding her in a trash can, authorities reported.
Nesler has been charged with first-degree tampering, a class D felony, and resisting arrest and escaping while under arrest for a felony, both class E felonies. A class D felony is punishable by up to seven years in prison, and each of the class E felonies carries a penalty of up to four years in prison.
“We will go back and watch video to assess the situations to see if there is something that could have been done differently or better to possibly prevent something like this,” Thompson said. “That will be for the training division to go through to see if there is something we can do in the future to prevent this from happening.”