Handcuffed woman drove away in police car

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla., March 21 (UPI) -- Police in Florida said a handcuffed woman in the back of a police car crawled into the front seat and drove away in the cruiser.

A Riviera Beach Police Department spokeswoman said officers responding to a Monday morning report about a possible sexual assault placed the subject of the call, Crystal Ivory, in handcuffs and put her in the back of a police cruiser while they investigated the incident, The Palm Beach Post reported Monday.

The spokeswoman said Ivory "may have been experiencing some type of mental illness event due to the nature of actions witnessed by the officers."

She said Ivory was able to move her arms to get the handcuffs to the front of her body and crawled through a divider window to get to the front seat of the cruiser.

The spokeswoman said Ivory drove the police car north on Congress Avenue to Blue Heron Boulevard, struck a pickup truck and came to a stop about 300 feet from the crash scene near a bank parking lot.

Ivory and the driver of the pickup truck were taken to a hospital for treatment. Their conditions were not released by police.