Car Thief Held After Stand-off With Boars
May 23, 3:34 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police pursuing a car thief through a dark forest turned rescuers when the man became cornered by a family of angry wild boar.

Officers caught the man's passenger after the pair rammed into a squad car on a cross-country chase and leapt from the stolen Opel, police in the eastern city of Schwerin said.

But they initially lost track of the 18-year-old driver during the night-time pursuit when he fled deep into the forest.

"Then he ran into the family of boars, and the head of the family squared up to him," a police spokesman said on Friday. "So he stood there, put his hands up, and called for help."

Officers rescued the man from the boars, then arrested him.