Police arrest passenger accused of stealing car at Adelaide petrol station after being given a lift

A good deed has led to a driver having her car stolen and then pursued by police in Adelaide’s south early this morning, but the suspect has since been arrested.

The pursuit was the second on the Southern Expressway within a matter of hours, while a police car was also rammed in another overnight incident in Adelaide’s north.

All of the incidents involved stolen vehicles.

Police were called to a service station at Old Noarlunga just after 12am after a 57-year-old woman had her car stolen, allegedly by a passenger who was receiving a lift.

The victim had allegedly offered to drive the 23-year-old woman to Moana Beach and stopped to refuel at the service station on Eric Road.

But when she got out to pay for the petrol, the younger woman allegedly drove off.

The stolen car was spotted by police patrols travelling at high speed on the Southern Expressway and was tracked by a police helicopter as it moved along South Road.

Police employed road spikes near Anzac Highway to bring the car to a halt on Tennyson Street at Kurralta Park.

The 23-year-old from Elizabeth Downs was charged with offences including theft of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest.

She was bailed to appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court next month.

Hours earlier, a man was arrested after he was allegedly spotted driving erratically on the Southern Expressway.

“Checks revealed the car had been stolen during a break-in at Blair Athol earlier that day,” police said.

The driver allegedly dumped the car but was arrested on the median strip of the Expressway.

The 39-year-old Renown Park man was charged and will face the Christies Beach Magistrates Court today.

Meanwhile, police are searching for the driver of a stolen van who rammed a police car at Parafield Gardens early this morning.

Police were called to Parkway Circuit about 3:15am and spotted the white panel van on nearby Bradman Road.

“When the patrol activated their lights and attempted to pull over the van it deliberately reversed into the unmarked police car and drove off,” police said.

“A few minutes later, when the patrol approached the stopped van a second time, it tried to reverse into the police car again but the patrol managed to avoid the collision. The van drove off again.

“Fortunately, there were no injuries to the police officers.”

The van was found abandoned a short time later, and, during the search for it, police also found another vehicle that had been stolen from Mawson Lakes last week.

The incidents coincide with a growing spate of seemingly reckless car thefts.

On Friday afternoon, a 30-year-old Mount Osmond woman was arrested after she allegedly drove a stolen SUV on the wrong side of the South Eastern Freeway.

The alarm was raised when concerned drivers spotted the vehicle in the emergency lane on the wrong side of the road, between Bridgewater and Stirling.