Delaware

Delaware Woman Steals Fire Department Truck, Gets Arrested Trying to Return It

A woman from Hockessin, Del. was charged Wednesday with several counts of theft after police say she stole a Delaware City Fire Department pickup truck from the County Police Headquarters parking lot on Tuesday.

Cuve Harding, 43, of the 1200 block of Old Lancaster Pike in Hockessin, was caught shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday as she attempted to return the Fire Department truck to the County Police lot after crashing it that morning, police said. Authorities first spotted the stolen vehicle at Lancaster Pike and Centerville Road about 11 a.m. when they say a Fire Board employee saw it involved in a crash and reported that it had been parked in the County Police lot earlier. The pickup fled the scene of the crash, police said.

Police reviewed surveillance video of the lot from that morning and saw Harding leave the police headquarters after being released about 8:15 a.m. and try to get into several vehicles in the parking lot before finding the pickup truck unsecured and taking off in it, authorities said. A spokeswoman for New Castle County Police said Harding had been released after appearing for an arraignment on outstanding arrest warrants, but that police there were unsure exactly what the warrants were for, because they were out of their jurisdiction.

Harding and the Fire Department truck resurfaced when a Mounted Patrol officer spotted the stolen truck traveling on DuPont Highway and tried to stop it. Harding, police said, failed to stop and instead made a U-turn to pull into the County Police Headquarters lot, where she was promptly arrested.

Harding is being held at the Delores J. Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in lieu of $5,000 bail, police said.
 

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