A 47-year-old inmate from Yafa an-Naseriyye, who was on a three-day holiday release, was arrested after stealing a Mercedes worth about NIS 250,000 from a car lot in Kiryat Shmona and leading police on a dramatic chase. The incident ended when he crashed into a wall in the village of Ka'abiyye and was caught after officers fired warning shots into the air.
The case began on May 28, when police received a report that the prisoner had failed to return to a designated location in southern Israel and had lost contact with authorities. Northern District police, who knew him from a similar case four years earlier in which a pursuit ended with an innocent civilian injured, immediately began wide searches near his home and among places connected to him and his relatives.
Three days later, on May 31, the owner of a Kiryat Shmona car lot reported a suspicious episode. A man had come pretending to buy the Mercedes, and while being driven with a worker to complete payment, he managed to flee with the vehicle. Investigators quickly linked that theft to the missing prisoner.
Police deployed in the Nazareth area and nearby localities based on the earlier searches. An officers' motorcycle team, including one officer who had taken part in the arrest four years ago, spotted the stolen Mercedes in Ka'abiyye. The driver ignored repeated orders to stop, drove dangerously, and endangered road users before crashing into a home wall in a residential neighborhood. Police then pursued him on foot and arrested him after firing warning shots. The Nazareth Prosecution Unit later filed an indictment in the Nof HaGalil-Nazareth Magistrate's Court and asked to hold him until the end of proceedings on charges of car theft, trespass, endangering road users, and evading police.
