Two suspected thieves, aged 25 and 27, were arrested by helicopter after a dangerous police chase.
Just before 10 p.m. yesterday, police received a report that a car was stolen from a delivery driver outside an address at Harvard Court in Newcastle.
The 24-year-old delivery driver had left his pregnant girlfriend in the car and the keys in the ignition when he got out to deliver a package.
But suddenly a man jumped into the driver’s seat and started the car – startled the woman who climbed out of the passenger seat before he drove away.
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The couple immediately contacted the police, who began tracking the car and dispatching units to the scene.
It wasn’t long before one of the inmates revealed his whereabouts with a credit card left in the vehicle at a gas station in Wallsend.
Further purchases were then made in stores in Heaton and Byker.
Officers then joined the joyriders as the National Police Air Service (NPAS) joined in to quickly end the incident.
The helicopter service helped the teams guide the teams through Ryton and into Winlaton, where the car came to a stop on Burn Road.
The eyes in the sky then saw the occupants who leave the car near a piece of forest and run away on foot.
The police then followed the men on foot, with some four-legged help from the dog division, before they were arrested and taken into custody.
They have since been released as part of the investigation.
Superintendent Sam Rennison, who heads the Northumbria Police Department’s Operations Department, praised the response from all the officers involved, including the NPAS and the Police Dog Section and Firearms Support Unit, who helped track down and arrest the suspects successfully.
“This has been excellent teamwork that has produced positive results,” she said.
“After we received the first report of the theft of the car, our officers were on site within a few minutes and instructed the colleagues to use all the tools at their disposal for possible sightings.
“These sightings, coupled with the perpetrators using a map left in the vehicle, meant that we could narrow down the area the car was in and follow its direction of travel. And with the help of our colleagues in the NPAS, we were then able to observe every movement of the perpetrators before we approached and brought the persecution to an end safely and quickly.
“I would like to thank everyone who participated in this incident, it was a real team effort that resulted in two men being taken into custody.
“I hope this will reassure our communities that we will not tolerate this type of crime and that we will use every tactic we can to respond and bring those responsible to justice.”
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