Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe VERONA, Italy, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Italian police said a man on the run for nine months is behind bars after hitching a ride with a motorist who turned out to be a plainclothes officer. Carabinieri police said the 37-year-old Romanian man was hitchhiking near Verona this month when a plainclothes officer felt he looked "wrong" and decided to pick him up, ANSA reported Thursday. Advertisement The officer pretended to be giving the man a ride home, but instead took him to the police barracks, where he unsuccessfully attempted to flee, police said. Investigators determined the man had been wanted since May on charges including aggravated theft, robbery, receiving stolen property and drunk driving. Prosecutors said he is now facing up to three years in prison. Read More Two hitchhikers in Germany lie down in road, are killed 'Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker' agrees to extradition Hitchhiker turns out to be slaying suspect Hitchhiker admits he shot himself in Mont.