A would-be car thief was stalled in his tracks Sunday afternoon after a failed attempt at stealing a Corvette.
"It was so bizarre," said RCMP Sgt. Jason Keays.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Oct. 23, the Prince George RCMP responded to a male with an axe attempting take the car from a driveway on Francois Crescent.
The owner of the Corvette had just finished charging the battery and was putting the battery charger in the garage when a male jumped in the running car, locked the power door locks, closed the power windows and attempted to drive away.
However, he was foiled by the standard transmission and the vehicle stalled as he reversed out of the driveway. Since the car battery wasn't fully charged, it died and the thief could not restart the car. The dead battery also meant he could not activate the power door locks or windows and was trapped inside the Corvette as the owner called 9-1-1 on the man who was brandishing a can of pepper spray.
The suspect unsuccessfully attempted to break the car window with the victim's anti-theft club before trying again to break out with with a hachet he had in his backpack.
When police arrived on scene, the thief had resorted to attempting pry the window open with a screwdriver.
A 21-year-old Prince George man was arrested without incident and will appear in court today on related theft and weapons charges.
"It's nice to send out a good news story when we've actually caught the bad guy," Keays said.
