Stafford County, Va. –– First, police say he stole a cop car and took it on a wild chase. But what happened next was the stuff of movies.
Stafford sheriff’s deputies were called to 85 Octagon Trail near White Oak about 9 p.m. Friday for a report of a man who appeared to be drunk and injured.
When they got there, the man they came to see ran off into a wooded area near his home.
Deputies tried to coax the man out of the woods, but while doing so the man circled around, jumped into a police car and sped off down White Oak Road (Va. 218) and drove into King George County, said Stafford sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy.
The man drove the stolen car to the home of an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in King George, who he had had previous contact with, and slammed the stolen police cruiser into the deputy’s unmanned cruiser parked in front of his home.
Unfazed, the man then drove the stolen car back into Stafford County where Virginia State Police had joined the search for him.
The man then struck not one, but two state police cruisers, said Kennedy.
By now, sheriff’s deputies have had decided they would try to stop the stolen car by deploying a stinger across the two-lane road. They dropped it in the area of Newton Road and were able to flatten one of the front tires of the stolen car.
The man continued driving until he ended up back at his house, where he collided with a utility pole, said Kennedy.
After a brief struggle, the man was arrested and charged.
Thomas J. Fincham, 27, faces charges of grand larceny, felony eluding, driving under the influence and impersonating a police officer.
He was held in the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
