10/22/13 San Bernardino, CA – Police Car Stolen Outside San Bernardino City Hall – Patrol Car Still Missing – Unknown If Hotwired Or Shaved Key

October 22, 2013

sbsun.com

The theft occurred at 8:21 a.m. in the parking lot at City Hall facing Court Street. All the vehicle’s doors were locked and the keys were not left in it. No guns or other police-issued weapons were in the car at the time it was stolen, police Lt. Paul Williams said.

A surveillance camera revealed that a man wearing a backpack approached the car, stood at the driver’s door for about 10 seconds, opened the door and got in. A few seconds later the brake lights lit up, and the man backed the car out of the stall, pulled out of the parking lot and headed west on Court Street, Williams said.

Due to the distance of the surveillance camera from the vehicle, police could not get an accurate description of the man.

As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, the stolen police car had yet to be located.

The vehicle is a 2008 silver Ford Crown Victoria, California exempt license plate number 1305691. It has a rust spot, about a foot in diameter, on the passenger side trunk lid, and a flat black magnet antenna, roughly 3 inches in diameter, affixed to the roof on the passenger side of the vehicle, Williams said,

Police urge anyone who spots the vehicle to call 911.

The officer to whom the car was assigned had an office at City Hall and was there on official city business, Williams said.

It was unknown if the car thief hot wired the vehicle or used a shaved key or other similar tool.

The theft was the culmination of a pattern of vehicle break-ins, theft and vandalism at and around City Hall in the last year.

“We definitely have had them,” Williams said of the vehicle thefts and break-ins. “And we’ve increased our security at City Hall and have had extra patrols in the area and we have the cameras set up.”