I'm sorry but I found this hysterical!!!!

Thieves take police car on wild drive along frozen Alaska river
by Rachel D'Oro / The Associated Press1 day 18 hrs ago | 4365 views | 11 | 22 | | ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Talk about a wild drive: barreling a stolen police vehicle on a frozen river in western Alaska while firing rounds from an officer's semiautomatic rifle.

Police in the commercial hub community of Bethel arrested a 24-year-old local man after the SUV was found abandoned about 10 miles from town.

Charles Chaney Jr. is charged with vehicle theft. Bethel Police Chief Larry Elarton said Wednesday other charges are pending against Chaney and three possible accomplices.

The vehicle was stolen Tuesday evening while Officer Jerry Herrod spent a few minutes inside a home working on a case, Elarton said. Inside the marked SUV were a rifle, a speed radar gun and the officer's gear, including his gloves. Herrod left the car running because of the cold, but didn't know if he left it unlocked or if the locking mechanism failed as it had in the past.

Police quickly spread word of the theft to nearby villages along the Kuskokwim River.

Greg Larson, a village public safety officer in Napaskiak, was among those notified. Within minutes of hanging up the phone, he heard gunfire.

He ran over to the Kuskokwim, which is used as a road in the region not linked by a road system. A half-mile away, a vehicle was going in circles on the river, lights flashing, with a four-wheeler close behind. Larson could hear sirens blaring and loud hollering.

"And I knew it was the stolen patrol car," he said.

Standing at the edge of the frozen river, he called Bethel police while the vehicles headed downriver toward the village of Napakiak. Elarton said authorities believe Chaney, who was out on bail on an unrelated assault charge, was alone in the SUV.

Police also notified Alaska State Troopers, who sent out a plane to search for the SUV. Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said the pilot radioed area villages, warning people to stay inside. He then spotted the patrol car on the river.

"The lights were flashing at the time, then they went off," Ipsen said. The pilot lost sight of the vehicle.

Elarton said the ice was unsteady in places after recent temperatures rose above freezing. So officers gingerly set out on snowmobiles, and the police chief and another officer took the lightest patrol truck in the department.

"It was definitely different," said Elarton, who is in his second year of living in Bethel after working as a sheriff in Colorado's Washington County and for police in San Diego. "You don't do this in San Diego - driving on an ice road."

Meanwhile, a village officer in Napakiak reported encountering Chaney - whom he identified - and another man on a four-wheeler, which held the radar gun, police said. Police tracked down Chaney's address, where authorities say they found the four-wheeler. Inside, police said they saw Herrod's gloves in plain view and interviewed two women and two men, including Chaney, who was arrested.

While the occupants were being interviewed, the patrol vehicle was found between Napaskiak and Oscarville. Police said numerous expended rounds were found on its floor, seats and dashboard. There was no damage to the SUV, but one of its high-beam lights was out, which might have hampered the search, Elarton said.

"A vehicle with one headlight might appear to be a snowmobile," he said. "So our attention would not be drawn to it."

Corrections officers in Bethel declined to say Wednesday evening if Chaney was still in custody or what his bail was, and it was unknown if he had an attorney