This file photo shows a police car's red lights flashing. (Mainichi/Kazuhisa Soneda)

       KUMAMOTO -- A 51-year-old man was arrested on Oct. 14 for stealing and driving a police car for some 20 kilometers after his van ran out of gas on an expressway in southwest Japan.

       The man ran out of gas on the outbound lane of the Kyushu Expressway in the Fukuoka Prefecture city of Miyama. Expressway traffic units from both Kumamoto and Fukuoka prefectural police arrived on the scene in the predawn hours of Oct. 14 to secure the area, and had him wait in the back seat of an unmarked police vehicle with the engine running and its red light flashing. However, when officers left him alone, he apparently got into the driver's seat and drove off toward Kumamoto.

       A Fukuoka Prefectural Police car was dispatched to chase the man, and caught him on the expressway in Kita Ward in the city of Kumamoto, about 20 kilometers away. No traffic accidents occurred during the chase.

       The man, identified as Kazunari Amimoto, who claims to live in the city of Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was arrested on the spot by Kumamoto Prefectural Police on suspicion of stealing the police car.

       (Japanese original by Sonoko Nakamura, Kumamoto Bureau)

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