Police: Woman Steals Postal Truck, Rams Into Parked Cars In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It was a bizarre scene in Brooklyn on Friday night after police say a woman hopped in a postal truck and took off.
Officers ended the woman's wild ride but not before she did a lot of damage.
The started around 6:30 p.m. at Fulton Street and Patchen Avenue and ended at Kingston Avenue and Fulton Street.
It was pure chaos as NYPD officers stood with their guns drawn, racing towards a 21-year-old woman ramming a stolen United States Postal Service truck into about a dozen parked cars.
Video shows one officer banging on the side of the truck while another officer jumps on a patrol car as the suspect tries taking off. But this time, she was trapped and officers quickly moved in to get her.
Footage captured the moment an officer opened the door, pulling the woman out and bringing her to the ground before she could run away.
Witness Newton Pottinger was shocked.
"Officers had their guns out and then they came, when it stopped, they came around and they looked on the... They came around to the side where the driver was, that's on the sidewalk, they told her to open the door, they told her to put her hands up in the air," he told CBS2's Cory James.
Duncin Odell showed up moments later, saying his car was one of the multiple vehicles that were hit.
"When I got hit, I looked in my rear view and that's a mail truck behind me," he said. "I'm like, do I have to chase them? And then I see the cops and I'm like, oh, they're chasing them."
The startling pursuit had people standing outside on a wet and cold night, watching it all unfold.
Glass and debris from the damaged vehicles was left behind in the street.
The USPS says the mail in the truck was secured and the driver of the vehicle was not injured.
Police say the woman, 21-year-old Martha Thaxton, has been charged with burglary, grand larceny of an auto, criminal possession of stolen property, reckless endangerment, unauthorized use of a vehicle and motor vehicle license violation.
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