San Francisco Police negotiators talk suicidal vehicle thief down from ledge using

The cat helped negotiators convince the man to get down from a third-story ledge in the South of Market area after he had run away from a traffic stop, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The driver jumped a fence and ran up the fire escape of a two-story building on 10th Street near Harrison.

He was driving a white Toyota Highlander when a CHP officer pulled him over at 2:41 p.m. around the corner on Dore Street, but while the officer was taking down information, the man ran from the stop, according to CHP Officer Vu Williams.

Investigators are trying to negotiate with him.

Below are a few tweets from the incident, via the SFPD and SF Examiner reporter Jonah Owen Lamb. It was later revealed that the Highlander was reported stolen.

A shirtless, handcuffed man is sitting in a police cruiser looking toward what appears to be his orange tabby in the arms of an officer in a photo posted on the California Highway Patrol San Francisco office’s official Twitter account. Officers from the hostage negotiation team, the tactical unit, the motorcycle unit, the traffic division as well as Southern station arrived to aid in the standoff, Esparza said. The man’s family was on its way from the East Bay as negotiators gently spoke to him from the fire escape. Shortly after 6 p.m., the man went back inside the building and the standoff was resolved. He surrendered shortly after seeing his cat, ‘ he said. For three hours police tried to talk the man down, only succeeding when his family brought his cat to the scene.

But it was only when he saw his cat that he made a decision to come down. “The guy wasn’t resisting”.

The power of cats is awesome – relieving stress in the most stressful situations.