Two men fleeing police after allegedly stealing baseball caps drove about 5km up the wrong way of a motorway before crashing into another car.
Yesterday, officers sitting in a patrol car outside the entrance to Westfield St Lukes saw a female shopkeeper chasing a man about 3.30pm.
The
man, who was holding two hats worth about $50 each, jumped into a waiting stolen vehicle being driven by another man.
Police pursued the pair, aged in their early 20s, on to the nearby Northwestern Motorway.
At the end of the motorway at Westgate, the driver turned around and travelled back the same way in the fast lane, travelling about 60km/h.
Police then abandoned the chase but their Eagle helicopter kept an eye on the pair.
Inspector Cornelius Kluessien of the Auckland central police station told the Herald the vehicle drove with two wheels on the middle grass strip of the motorway near the cable barriers and two on the fast lane.
"It's a miracle there wasn't a crash on the motorway," he said.
The pair crossed over on to the far lane and exited by the Lincoln Rd onramp.
They got about 50m before crashing into a car being driven by a woman turning into a parking area in front of them.
Mr Kluessien said police in a dog handler vehicle, who were not part of the pursuit but were travelling on the motorway, had heard the chase on the police radio and turned off at Lincoln Rd.
The offenders gave themselves up at the crash scene.
"These people think [that by driving the wrong way] police will abandon the chase and they'll get away with it," Mr Kluessien said. "What they forget is that wherever they go police will be waiting for them. It's a little bit silly."
The woman whose car was hit was treated by St John Ambulance paramedics at the scene but did not have to be admitted to hospital.
One of the men will appear in the Auckland District Court today and the other in the Waitakere District Court.
