After stealing a vehicle and wrecking it on the San Francisco Bay Bridge Wednesday, a suspected auto thief jumped 75 feet into icy water to evade being captured by police.
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The woman was last seen, soaking wet, hitching a ride from a dump-truck driver in Oakland, near the bridge, said Officer Vu Williams of the California Highway Patrol.
The woman apparently survived the fall, as authorities said motorists reported seeing her get out of the water near the toll plaza on the span’s eastern edge shortly before 6 a.m. His description of the woman matched the CHP officers’.
“Number one, want to make sure she’s OK”, Williams said.
Further proof that the woman – whose name has not been released – lived came when an unidentified dump truck driver went to the Oakland office of the CHP to report that he had picked up a female hitchhiker and driven her to an undisclosed location.
A trooper happened to be passing in the other direction at the time and whipped around to see the three women hopping a rail onto a San Francisco Bridge walkway.
Officers had arrived to seek out that two ladies contained in the vehicle had fled.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Oakland police and firefighters helped the CHP in the search.
Williams said it was not clear if she jumped on objective or slipped.
The Nissan had been reported stolen more than a week before in Los Angeles.
The CHP spokesman said authorities also found the woman’s identification card while searching the water.
On Wednesday afternoon the woman was still missing, authorities said.
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Her two passengers were questioned by detectives and released after it was determined they weren’t involved in the theft.
