By Wil Cruz and Ethan Rouen
The Daily News
NEW YORK — A drunken woman unhappy with the service she received at a Manhattan police station stole an NYPD van Wednesday night and crashed it into two vehicles, police said.
She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
The bizarre saga unfolded as two officers were switching seats in the vehicle about 9:45 p.m. so a fresh driver could take the wheel. That’s when the disgruntled 20-year-old woman emerged from the 30th Precinct stationhouse in Sugar Hill, jumped into the van and sped off, injuring one of the cops, police said.
Before going a block, she slammed into an 18-wheel Pathmark tractor-trailer and a car on Broadway near W. 152nd St., police said.
A 37-year-old neighborhood woman who saw the crash said, “She tried to pass the truck but hit the right side of it. The air bag just exploded in her face.”
Frantz Dumel, 28, a concert promoter from Rockland County, emerged from a nearby recording studio to find his parked black 2003 Mercedes-Benz a wreck.
“I saw the yellow tape, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, somebody must have gotten shot.’ I was actually just hoping that the cops would let me get to my car,” he said. “I turned the corner and noticed that my car was totaled. I said to myself, ‘This can’t be happening. This is like out of a movie.’”
The suspect was taken to Harlem Hospital with chest injuries. Her name was withheld pending charges, which will include driving under the influence of drugs and grand-theft auto, a police source said.
The injured officer was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in stable condition for treatment of his elbow.
Copyright 2008 The Daily News