A police car was stolen Thursday in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, by a man undergoing questioning by highway patrol officers.
The theft occurred around 4:45 p.m. at a gas station in Beppu's Minami Tateishi district, where a 37-year-old man was stopped by two Oita highway patrol officers who noticed him riding a minibike without a helmet.
The officers then noticed that the minibike was a stolen vehicle. While the officers were checking the motorbike, the man drove off with their car.
The car was found fours hours later but the driver was missing.
Two other police officers, who pulled up at the scene during questioning, pursued the vehicle but eventually lost track of it.
About four hours later, the police car was found abandoned on a residential street about 2 km away.
The suspect was described as thin, about 170 to 180 cm tall, and wearing a brown hat and black sports attire.
Yuichi Hiroiwa, chief highway patrol officer, said "there was negligence" on the part of the two highway patrol officers, who failed to remove the key from the ignition.
He said there was no gun, handcuffs or police documents inside the car and nothing was stolen.