A Nanaimo man has been arrested after a four-hour police chase in which a fugitive kicked in the door of a stranger’s home and then fled by stealing a police cruiser, which had been left with the keys in the ignition.

The incident started at 10 p.m. on Thursday, in Cedar, just south of Nanaimo, when a man in a Cadillac Eldorado blew by an RCMP traffic stop aimed at drunk drivers. The driver sped off, and by the time officers could catch up to the Eldorado, it was found abandoned near a bridge over the Nanaimo River, said Nanaimo RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien.

A few minutes later, a 911 call came from a nearby homeowner who said a man had kicked in her front door and was inside.

The female homeowner was traumatized but uninjured, and their suspect was gone.

When backup officers arrived, they saw the fugitive backing a police cruiser out the driveway. O’Brien said that in the haste of getting inside the house to help the homeowner, an officer left the keys in the ignition.

Mounties tracked the cruiser through its built-in GPS unit. About 20 minutes later, they used a spike belt to stop the car. The fugitive fled on foot, and was tracked to a friend’s home by a police dog and arrested.

Tyler Desmond Fong is charged with dangerous driving, evading police, break and enter, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property and dangerous driving. He also had outstanding warrants for dangerous driving and possession of stolen property.