Man handcuffed behind his back leads police in high-speed car chase

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A man stole a police patrol vehicle and engaged in a car chase with authorities in Kansas, United States, all while handcuffed behind his back.

The suspect, 23-year-old Joshua Swartwout, was already involved in an earlier pursuit with the police at the time of the incident. He was getting transported to a detention facility on suspicion of auto theft when officers noticed a motorcycle crash on the way to the facility, as per trooper Tod Hileman of Kansas Highway Patrol in a release posted on Facebook last Saturday, April 3.

Swartwout, whose hands were handcuffed behind his back, managed to sneak into the driver’s seat of the patrol vehicle while officers assisted the crash victims. Taking advantage of the distraction, he drove off with the police car “at a high rate of speed,” the police said.

The car chase did not last for long because roughly half an hour later, the patrol vehicle ran out of fuel and Swartwout continued his escape. Police said the suspect was arrested shortly after the foot chase began.

Officers did not initially ask Swartwout how he managed to drive the vehicle without using his hands, Hileman told ABC News yesterday, April 4.

“As a high-speed pursuit driving instructor for 20 years, I can only assume he was using his knees,” he told the news outlet. He also thinks the vehicle was driven at around 100 miles per hour (about 160 kilometers per hour), given that the highway where the chase happened was narrow.

Nobody was injured during the incident and the patrol car was not damaged. Swartwout was taken into custody at a local county jail. JB

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