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Woman stealing cleaning supplies takes police officers on high speed chase

Posted at 10:08 PM, May 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-17 11:04:59-04

A high speed chase is caught on camera in Livonia and it all started because a woman stole cleaning supplies from the Meijer store on Middlebelt.

It happened Tuesday afternoon.  Police said 47-year-old Somonique Biles stole a cart load of cleaning supplies and employees called Livonia Police.

"She stole about $300 in cleaning supplies, she had a mop and a broom and some detergent and some flip flops and some cheeseburgers,” said Capt. Robert Nenciarini with the Livonia PD.

He said officers spotted Biles soon after the call.

"Less than a minute our officers found her on eastbound I-96 and Inkster Rd. They tried to stop her used, lights and siren but she fled,” said Nenciarini.

There were a lot of cars on the interstate, Biles was weaving in and out of traffic and investigators said she and the pursuing officer reached speeds of 100 miles per hour.

But the officer did decide to terminate the chase.

"She exited Outer Driver, that's our termination point for something that isn't a real serious crime so we terminated our officer,” said Nenciarini.

The officer also exited onto Outer Driver and found Biles had crashed, and he was able to bring her into custody.

7 Action News asked police why they would pursue someone at speeds so high, creating a possibly dangerous situation, and Capt. Nenciarini said they don’t want to set a bad precedent.

"We don't like people to come in and steal everything from our city and we if we didn't chase anybody , everybody would come in and take everything and wouldn't stop for us, we chase the majority of people,” he said.

He said he doesn’t matter that she only stole cleaning supplies, the officer would have pursued.

"I doubt that the officer had any idea at the time how much she had even stolen,” said Nenciarini.

Biles is being held on $50,000 bond and is facing several charges.