Woman wriggles out of handcuffs in police SUV, steals it and leads officers on 100mph car chase

Toscha Fay Sponsler crawls hit speeds of more than 100mph

A woman managed to slip out of her handcuffs and hop into the front of a police SUV, before leading officers on a high speed chase that hit speeds of 100mph.

Toscha Fay Sponsler had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Angelina, Texas. Officers handcuffed and detained in the back of the cruiser as they searched her bags.

But with their attention elswhere, the 33-year-old was able to wriggle out of her handcuffs and crawl into the front of the vehicle.

Footage of the incident was captured by cameras in the SUV.

Lufkin Police Department said she tried to get her hands on a a gun that was locked away, before she speeding off in the vehicle.

“God damn,” one of the officers shouted as a pair of them tried in vain to chase her on foot.

Hitting speeds of up to 100mph, Sponsler swerved across lanes with several police vehicles in pursuit in the dramatic high-speed chase.

She even managed to speed around a spike strip – which officers threw out to try and puncture the tyres of the vehicle and halt it in its tracks.

“Sponsler nearly went head on with two Lufkin officers and a Huntington constable during the pursuit,” Lufkin Police Department wrote on their Facebook account of the incident.

“Throughout the chase, officers could see her reaching for the officer's shotgun which was mechanically locked to the vehicle,” it added.

Sponsler’s high speed chase eventually came to an end after 23 minutes when the cruiser ploughed into a tree and spun around several times before finally coming to a stop.

She is heard groaning in the squad car before an officer appears to break the glass on her door, wrenches her out and pushes her to the ground where she is handcuffed again.

Lufkin Police Department have since installed partitions between the front and back parts of their squad cars. They released a video of an officer bolting one on - and included the hashtag: “#FOOLMEONCE”

Sponsler was held in custody in the Angelina County Jail on $18,000 (£14,000) bail charged with five felony counts.

They included threat of a deadly weapon, aggravated assault, unauthorized use of a vehicle and evading arrest, jail records showed.