Good Samaritan Gets Car Stolen, Wrecked in Police Chase

A Valley Park woman who gave a ride to a couple, one of whom was walking with the aid of a walker, on a cold, windy day Nov. 11, had her car stolen and crashed in return.

St. Louis County Police said the woman gave a ride to Michael A. Null Jr., 34, who was using a walker and his female companion. Null's companion told the woman Null's walker bent and he had fallen.

The woman offered to give them a ride and told them she had a walker at her home, which she no longer needed and would give it to them. She drove the couple to her home in the 200 block of Lookout Avenue and left her keys in the car with the motor running.

St. Louis County Police spokesman Randy Vaughn said Null then jumped into the driver's seat and took the car. When the woman returned with the walker and two coats for the couple, her 2009 Ford Escape was gone.

St. Louis County Police officers spotted the car turning onto Highway 141 from Meramec Station Road and attempted to stop it.

Police said Null drove off quickly and weaved in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed, in a steady rain with 38 mph winds and low visibility. At one point, he took off a side view mirror from another car.

Police said the Ford Escape struck a 2002 Ford Explorer at the Hawkins Road intersection.

Police said the Explorer driver told them he briefly lost consciousness after he hit his head on the steering wheel during the accident. He had to be removed from the SUV, was hospitalized at St. Anthony's Medical Center and treated for pain as a result of the injury, police said.

Null ran from the wreckage, but officers caught him after a brief foot chase.

Null, of the 800 block of Garronne Drive in unincorporated West County, was charged Nov. 12 with stealing a motor vehicle, resisting arrest and second-degree assault. He is being held in St. Louis County jail. Bail was set at $25,000.

The second-degree assault charge is related to the driver's injury in the crash.

The woman who accompanied Null was arrested on a separate warrant. She is not being charged in the car theft.

For more crime information on Ballwin-Ellisville Patch, see the following articles:

• Residents Press Charges for Assaults in Ballwin Neighborhood
  Motorcyclist From Town and Country Charged With Assault-DWI in Collision