Illinois man arrested after driving stolen Key West police car

A Memorial Day weekend night in Key West turned into an apparent security lapse when police say John Mack, 38, of La Grange, Illinois, climbed into an occupied patrol car outside Dante’s Key West Pool Bar & Restaurant and drove off around the Key West Bight Marina. Officers said the cruiser was there while an off-duty officer worked a detail, and a security guard alerted that officer after Mack approached the vehicle.

Police say surveillance video captured the sequence just before 6:20 p.m. Saturday, May 23. Mack was seen leaving the bar with two friends, walking toward the patrol car near 955 Caroline St., opening the door, getting inside and driving away. In the brief ride around the marina parking lot, authorities said he nearly hit two people before officers moved in.

Investigators later found Mack outside the nearby Boat House Bar & Grill. Police said he told them he had consumed three to six Corona beers before taking the cruiser. He failed a field sobriety test and refused a breathalyzer, according to police. Officers also said he had only an Illinois identification card and no valid driver’s license.

Mack was arrested on seven charges: DUI, burglary, grand theft, grand theft of law enforcement equipment, reckless driving, refusal to submit to DUI testing and resisting arrest without violence. Reporting said he suffered cuts from a fence during the arrest.

The arrest drew attention because it unfolded in one of Key West’s busiest holiday-weekend corridors, where the Key West Bight Marina, Dante’s and the Boat House Bar & Grill sit amid heavy pedestrian traffic and late-night bar activity. The case also raised a pointed question for local law enforcement: how a tourist was able to take a marked police vehicle from an active detail and use it to keep moving from bar to bar before officers stopped him.