GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Visitors to the East Head Café at The Heads could hardly believe their eyes last Thursday morning when they noticed what appeared to be a car stuck between a rock and a hard place - literally - on the Costa Sarda pedestrian walkway.

Police gave chase early Thursday morning at 05:00 when a white Ford Laser was stolen in Bokmakierie Road, Denneoord in George, only to eventually pull the culprit from the car more than an hour later at The Heads in Knysna when he mistook a pedestrian pathway as a drive-through.

A very determined Antonio Barlow (23) apparently fled at high speed through several suburbs in George before bursting onto the N2 Highway with the police hot in pursuit. According to Captain Bernadine Steyn, the provincial police spokesperson, the police tried in vain to pull the vehicle off the road at Wolhuter Street, Lavalia. The suspect, by then apparently well fired up with adrenaline, drove into the left side of a police vehicle.

"The vehichle was damaged and two police members sustained light injuries," says Steyn.

At 06:11 residents of Knysna awoke to a spectacle of flashing lights and sirens as the fleeing suspects managed to dodge several roadblocks and shots fired at him, driving on the pavement at times.

Two more police vehicles were damaged in the high speed chase.

Had Barlow not chosen to swank down towards the lagoon into George Rex Drive in Knysna and got himself stuck in a narrow pathway, police may well have had to chase him all the way to Port Elizabeth or fish him off the rocks, which is where his unfortunate detour lead him.

Once the car could go no further, he nonetheless attempted to flee on foot and was eventually apprehended by the police’s eager K9 Dog Unit’s help.

The tenacious Barlow was taken to hospital for minor injuries under the stern guard of the police after which he was driven all they way back to George to be detained there.

Barlow appeared in the George Magistrates’ Court on Monday on charges of theft of a motor vehicle and reckless driving.


What was he thinking - "A burger and fries, please?" A fleeing suspect’s stolen vehicle stuck on the narrow pedestrian walkway just next to the East Head Café at The Heads, Knysna.


What was he thinking - "A burger and fries, please?" A fleeing suspect’s stolen vehicle stuck on the narrow pedestrian walkway just next to the East Head Café at The Heads, Knysna.

ARTICLE: ANOESCHKA VON MECK, FRAN KIRSTEN & ROZANO ALIE, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD REPORTERS