Staff Report
BRANT NEWS

A Delhi man is facing charges after driving a stolen vehicle dangerously close to a responding police cruiser during the early morning hours on Friday.

Brantford police say a resident reported seeing a suspicious man checking the door handles of cars in a parking lot at Charlotte and Colborne streets at about 2 a.m.

Officers arrived in the area as the man was breaking into a 1995 Ford van and starting the ignition.

Police approached the vehicle with their emergency lights on, but the man drove “erratically and dangerously close to the police cruiser, just inches from contact,” police said.

The man drove the stolen van across the parking lot, over a sidewalk and fled westbound on Dalhousie Street at a high rate of speed.

Officers maneuvered to contain the stolen vehicle in a radius of several blocks. The vehicle was found abandoned and still running in a parking lot at George and Darling streets.

Officers continued to search for the suspect and located him on Chatham Street. The man was arrested following a short foot pursuit.

A 26-year-old Delhi man is charged with theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, failing to stop for police and flight from a police officer.