HollyMatkinSacramento, CA – An intoxicated driver was apprehended by a former security guard on Saturday night, after the man stole a police cruiser and headed to the local liquor store (video below).
Zachary Samaha, 22, stole the Sacramento Police Department (SPD) car at 7:17 p.m., after officers left it unattended while they handled a call, The Fresno Bee reported.
Former security guard Chris Marzan also happened to be driving in the area with his personal dashcam activated, when he noticed that an oncoming vehicle did not have its headlights on.
Marzan flashed his own lights at the driver to signal him to turn on his headlights.
“As I’m passing the intersection, I notice it’s a … Sacramento Police Department patrol car,” Marzan told the Public Safety News Network.
He said the police vehicle then made a U-turn, and Marzan figured he was being pulled over.
“I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m getting pulled over for flashing a cop,’” he said.
But as he looked in his rearview mirror, Marzan noticed that the police cruiser was “fishtailing,” he said.
The driver then crashed into a pole in a parking lot.
“I then saw an individual – a male – get out of the vehicle wearing gray sweats, black shirt, and I’m like, ‘he is definitely not an officer.’ He gets back into the patrol car, so I double back,” Marzan told KFVS.
He called 911 to report what was taking place.
“I said ‘Look, you have a Sac PD vehicle that just crashed’ and they’re like ‘What? Where?’ So they were unaware at the time it was stolen,” he said.
“I said, ‘This guy needs to be stopped.’ My concern was there was a bunch of pedestrians around and this guy was driving reckless, so I proceeded to follow him,” he said.
Marzan said the barefoot driver exited the police vehicle for a moment, but that he jumped back in when the car began to roll away, KTXL reported.
The video showed the police cruiser as it bolted out of the parking lot, leaving a trail of smoke.
“He’s going against traffic,” Marzan explained, according to the Public Safety News Network.
The Good Samaritan continued to follow Samaha, who eventually pulled into a handicap parking spot at a liquor store, KTXL reported.
Marzan said the suspect looked at him before he ran into the store.
“He just waves. And he’s smiling. He’s smiling the whole time,” Marzan said.
“I run inside behind him. I have no weapons on me, all I got is my flashlight,” he told the Public Safety News Network. “And I come up and all I see is this guy, coming out, he’s got a 40 [ounce container of alcohol], he’s already got the screw top off, turns around, and I’m like, ‘Get the f on the ground! Get down on the ground!’”
Marzan said kept a kit in his car that contained leftover gear from his time as a security officer – to include handcuffs, The Fresno Bee reported.
“I gave him verbal commands,” he said. “He got down and he complied from there and that’s when I cuffed him and brought him out.”
The video showed Marzan as he escorted Samaha out of the store.
“I used caution. I was very careful about it because I didn’t know if this guy was going to come out with a weapon,” Marzan told KFVS.
“He was like, ‘Oh, OK, you got me,’ and he was just laughing about the whole thing. So, it was like a big joke to him,” the former security guard said.
Marzan kept a cooperative Samaha under control in the parking lot until police arrived.
Police arrested Samaha for vehicle theft and driving under the influence, The Fresno Bee reported.
“If I can convey any message to everyone is this. If you see something, don’t just sit and watch,” Marzan told KXTV. “If you do nothing at all, you’re just as much the problem.”
Watch Samaha’s joyride and Marzan’s citizen’s arrest below: