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This is an article on an incident that appeared in the media all over the world. This is one of the ultimate wierd arrest stories ever.
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Houdini could not have done it better
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - With Houdini-like skill, a woman handcuffed in the back of a squad car managed to hijack the car and lead police on a chase from Monmouth County to Galloway Township - all without taking off the cuffs or getting out of the vehicle.
To get to the front seat she had to squeeze through a tiny opening in the protective panel between the police car's front and back seats.
No one was seriously injured in the chase Sunday, in which the vehicles exceeded 80 mph. But police are still scratching their heads over what they said Jennifer A. Lach, 33, of West Belmar, was able to do.
The strange series of events began at about 8 p.m. Sunday, in Belmar, Belmar Police Chief Jack Hill said. Lach tried to get into a friend's house at 11th Avenue, where a group of musicians were holding a jam session.
"Her friends wouldn't let her in the house because of the way she was behaving," Hill said. "She was yelling and shouting."
Lach seemed intoxicated, and "she apparently has bipolar disorder. ... She got back in her car and smashed two vehicles, along with part of the fence, before driving off," Hill said
He said at 8:47 p.m. she crashed into another vehicle, at a gas station parking lot several blocks away. The accident happened near the border with South Belmar.
South Belmar police Officer Rolando Ensuar and Belmar police Officer Christopher Lynch soon arrived. They saw Lach arguing with the driver of the car she had just hit, Hill said.
Ensuar approached the two women, hoping to calm them down. When he spoke with Lach, she punched him in the chest, Hill said.
The police chief said Ensuar then handcuffed Lach and placed her in the back of his car.
"(Ensuar) didn't know at the time that she was double-jointed," Hill said.
Lach's hands were handcuffed behind her back. She curled her legs up, drew her hands under them, and soon had the cuffed hands in front of her. It's not an easy feat, Hill said.
"I've seen guys do it, but it takes an incredible amount of flexibility," he said.
No one could have predicted what she did next.
Between the rear and front seats, Ensuar's car had a protective shield of the kind common in police cars. The shield had a ventilation window that Hill said was 6 inches high by 10 inches wide.
By comparison, the standard-size paper used in copy machines and computer printers is 81/2 by 11 inches.
Lach managed to wriggle through the window, Hill said.
She is small - about 5 feet 4 inches - and has a slight build, the chief said. Still, in all his years as a police officer, Hill said he never heard of someone managing such a stunt.
Lach did all this while Ensuar and Lynch were distracted, talking to the woman that Lach had been arguing with, Hill said. Lach surprised the officers by driving off in Ensuar's vehicle.
What followed was a 60-mile chase to Galloway Township, Hill said. With police following, Lach drove to Route 138 West, which she followed for three miles until it joined the Garden State Parkway.
She then took the parkway south, Hill said. She had the squad car's lights and siren blaring the whole way.
"While they were chasing her, the officers tried to talk to her on the radio to get her to pull over. She was saying (also through the radio), 'Eff you!' " Hill said.
At about 9:20 p.m., parkway state troopers from the Bass River barracks spotted Lach, a State Police spokesman said.
Hill said that when Lach off at Exit 44, just south of Port Republic, she took Pomoma Road down to The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She then entered the college grounds.
Troopers Rodney Goodson and Joseph Marchello followed her onto the Stockton College campus, State Police said.
Hill said the chase finally ended when Lach struck a parked civilian car and some trees, and came to a stop.
The vehicle she hit was occupied, and the people inside suffered minor injuries, according to a press release from the Belmar and South Belmar police departments.
Belmar police did not know the names of the vehicle's occupants, and referred a reporter to the Stockton Police Department. A dispatcher at the Stockton police office said she could not release the names Monday.
After the crash, police arrested Lach once more, Hill said. Ensuar and Lynch took her to Belmar Police Headquarters.
Hill said she is charged with: aggravated assault of a police officer; terroristic threats; resisting arrest; escape; eluding police; vehicle theft; criminal mischief, drunken driving; reckless driving; leaving the scene of an accident; failure to report an accident; failure to stop at a red light; failure to wear a seatbelt and numerous other traffic offenses.
Lach is being held in Monmouth County jail on $175,000 bail.
Belmar Officer Lynch and Capt. George McCormick, of the South Belmar Police Department, are conducting a joint investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, Hill said.
When asked whether Ensuar might have made a mistake that contributed to Lach's escape, Hill said, "That would be an internal matter for the South Belmar police."
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Toothy Evidence Convicts Miami's 'Bumbling Robber'
MIAMI (Reuters) - A man the FBI (news - web sites) dubbed the "bumbling bank robber" was convicted after investigators matched his DNA to the gold teeth knocked out when a van hit the fleeing suspect, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Charles Edward Jones was convicted of bank robbery on Tuesday in U.S. District Court and faces up to life imprisonment, U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez said.
On Sept. 30, 2002, Jones walked into a Wachovia Bank in Miami, pulled a gun from his pocket and robbed a teller of about $16,000, according to trial evidence.
As he ran out of the bank, he stuffed the gun into his waistband, accidentally firing it into his pants. The bullet missed him but when he stepped into the street he was hit by a van delivering school lunches in the area, investigators said.
Jones managed to stumble to a waiting car, leaving two gold teeth, his gun and hat lying in the street, prosecutors said. The FBI later matched DNA from the teeth with Jones' DNA, proving he had been in the bank.
Jones was arrested a few days after the robbery at a Miami hotel, where agents found a sock full of money from the robbery stuffed into his trousers. The serial numbers from the recovered money matched the bills taken from the bank, Jimenez said.
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