In this stolen police car case, the clip everyone is sharing is the wrong clip. Sorry, internet.
A Fort Lauderdale woman accused of taking a marked Broward Sheriff’s Office Dodge Charger made an odd, rambling appearance in a St. Lucie County bond court, and the video took off online. But the moment that should bother anyone who thinks about cars for a living happened hours earlier, in a parking lot at 2601 W. Broward Boulevard, the address of the county’s Public Safety Building.
A fully marked patrol car, parked at the sheriff’s own headquarters complex, apparently drove away with someone who had no business behind the wheel. That’s what deserves attention, and the likely answer has more to do with how police cars are built to be used than with one bad night.
What authorities say happened
According to authorities, the Charger was taken on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 22, from the public parking area of the Public Safety Building. By about 9:30 p.m., a be-on-the-lookout alert had gone out for a stolen BSO Charger heading north on Interstate 95. St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputies, Port St. Lucie police and Florida Highway Patrol troopers converged near Gatlin Boulevard, more than 90 miles up the interstate, and found the car abandoned on the northbound exit ramp at mile marker 118…