A thief used his truck to ram two police cars during a getaway outside a drug house, RCMP said.
Officers were staking out the house on Peck Court, a cul de sac off Hollywood Road South, when they determined the licence plate on a Ford pickup parked outside was stolen from the Lower Mainland.
The officers waited a couple of hours until a man walked out of the house and got into the pickup. One of them recognized the man as a Kelowna crook.
Police predicted he‘d try to evade arrest and used three unmarked vehicles to box him in. The third police car was moving into position near the front of the pickup when the driver hit the gas pedal.
The truck roared toward the third car, smashed into the driver‘s side and struck another car. The officer in the third vehicle believed the truck was going to drive over top of his car.
"My vehicle was low to the ground and the pickup was much taller," said Const. Collier Henneberry. "All I could see was the truck‘s grill and I heard the truck‘s engine roaring and back tires spinning out on the road and the gravel."
Police decided against chasing the fugitive, but sent out an alert. Officers found the pickup abandoned near a mobile home park on Baron Road. A sniffer dog failed to pick up a scent.
No one was injured in the escape, but the two police cars are not driveable. Henneberry couldn‘t open his driver‘s door because it was so damaged, said Sgt. Ann Morrison.
"He was kind of trapped inside there for a period of time, but was able to get out through the passenger side," she said.
The offence happened last Wednesday, but police delayed publicizing it until they got an arrest warrant.
The suspect, 40, is known to police as a prolific offender for property crimes. Alan Greenlees is now wanted for possessing stolen property, flight from police, assault with a weapon (the truck) and assaulting an officer.
He‘s six feet one inch tall with dirty blond hair. Top of Page
