Illawarra cop Rex Hone commandeers taxi to arrest man after nightclub scuffle
A Wollongong police officer became the talk of the station for months after commandeering a taxi in the middle of the night to chase down a man on the run, only for the culprit to hail down the same taxi and jump into the front seat.
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A Wollongong police officer became the talk of the station for months after using an unconventional mode of transport and an unlikely sidekick to apprehend a man on the run.
Senior Constable Rex Hone was patrolling Wollongong with his partner late one night in January 2017, when a job for a ‘fail to quit’ came over the police radio.
The pair arrived at Hotel Illawarra to find a group of young ladies being asked to leave the club. Things quickly took a turn however when a “very big and very angry” man stormed out of the hotel and began abusing security.
Senior constable Hone’s duty officer was driving past at the time, and heard a job of a similar nature come over the radio.
“He walked over and said to me and my partner ‘it’s okay boys. I’ve got this’,” Senior constable Hone said.
“I thought to myself ‘this isn’t the job you’re supposed to be at, but that’s fine’”.
The duty officer told the man that if he didn’t leave the area, he’d get a fine, which made him “very upset”.
“He raised his voice at our duty officer, got very aggressive and made quite a few threats,” senior constable Hone said.
“I went to place him under arrest, and he pushed us away and started running.”
Senior constable Hone, his partner and their duty officer gave chase, sprinting down Keira Street to try and stop the man.
“I thought I was quick, I was playing a bit of footy at the time, feeling fit,” Senior constable Hone said.
“But we had nothing on this guy. He was really quick.”
The offender got about 150 metres in front of the police officers, when they had to stop and take a breath.
“We realised then that the smart thing to do would have been to chase him in a car,” senior constable Hone said.
“But we thought we could chase him down … We had no chance.”
Taking a second to think, Senior Constable Hone decided to push on. He broke away from his partner and duty officer and as he got ahead, saw a taxi slowing down.
“(The driver) must have seen something, because he wound down the window and said ‘you want to hop in don’t you’,” he said.
“I said I did and he asked me if we were about to chase someone. Picture this, an older driver close to retirement age, and me in the back … it was something to see.”
Senior constable Hone “commandeered” the taxi, jumping in the back seat while the driver joined him on the hunt for the man on the loose.
“We decided to head west and in the distance you could see a blur, a guy without his shirt on,” senior constable Hone said.
“I remember the taxi driver saying ‘I think that’s him’ and I remember thinking the same.”
At that point, this man jumped into the middle of the road, put his hands up and hailed the taxi to stop.
“I’m in the back seat and I say ‘mate, let him in!,” senior constable Hone said.
As the taxi slowed down, the man jumped in and smacked his hands on the dashboard, ordering the driver to floor it.
“He said ‘drive, drive the police are …’ and that was as far as he got,” senior constable Hone said.
The police officer dived over the seat in front of him and grabbed the man, who until that point wasn’t aware senior constable Hone was actually in the back seat.
“He started screaming ‘where the f**k did you come from’ before we had a bit of a wrestle and I placed him under arrest,” senior constable Hone said.
But it seemed the man was more impressed with his arrest than anything, asking senior constable Hone if police got around in taxis these days.
“It’s definitely one of the best stories that’s come from my 15 years in the force,” senior constable Hone said.
“When we get new guys in they all rush to come and see the photos … it was the talk of the station for a while.”
While the offender got off with community service, the embarrassment of the incident still haunts him today.
“I still see him about a bit, his friend always makes fun of him,” senior constable Hone said.
“But we’ve got mutual respect for each other. I beat him on this one. One nil to the police.”