KEY POINTS:
A policeman watched helplessly as a teenage suspect he had stopped for questioning leaped into his patrol car and sped off early yesterday.
The shocked officer was left standing at the roadside as the 16-year-old girl led police on a 30km chase.
The teenager's joyride came to an end only after she crashed the car, "absolutely totalling" it according to one police officer.
During the 20-minute chase she drove more than 30km from Rotorua to Rotoma.
The girl had been stopped as part of a routine patrol by police, but jumped into the the officer's car and fled.
Senior Sergeant Scott Fraser, of the Rotorua police, said the girl was found climbing out of bushes - seemingly unscathed - near the crashed car at about 3am yesterday.
She was released into the custody of her family and is due to appear in the Youth Court next week on charges relating to driving and taking a motor vehicle.
Police have launched an investigation into how the girl managed to take the car.
"We are reviewing our practices and procedures to make sure they were being abided by or to see whether they need changing in any way," Inspector Steve Bullock said.
The officer concerned had not been stood down, he said. The car, meanwhile, was "not that flash".
The officer stopped the teenager and a friend after he saw them riding a bicycle on a Rotorua footpath in the early hours of the morning. As he caught one girl, the other got into the patrol car and drove off.
Constable Kevin Raynes, of Kawerau police, said officers began following the driver, but backed off because of wet conditions. They picked up the chase again and found the car "absolutely totalled" in Rotoma.
Mr Bullock said the girl was lucky not to have been injured. "From what I understand ... we are not likely to get the car back into use again."
