Mosquitoes force man hiding from police to surrender

A man on the run from police during a high-speed chase has turned himself in because he couldn’t stand the swarming mosquitoes he faced when he leaped into a field.

A thief was allegedly caught on CCTV helping himself to three bottles of Jagermeister from a grocery store in the US town on Campellsport, Wisconsin.

The store manager told police he recognised the man loading a cart with almost $2000 worth of alcohol to be the same person who had allegedly stolen from the store three times before, so he chased the thief out of the store, WDJT-CBS reported.

The man jumped into his waiting getaway car and the driver, identified as John Wilson, sped away, sparking a five-kilometre chase.

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The pursuit came to an abrupt end when the driver parked his car and ran into a cornfield to hide.

What he probably didn’t anticipate were the hordes of vicious mosquitoes, following recent rain and flooding.

The bugs were too much for the driver, who was forced to surrender about an hour later, rather than remain at large while contending with the swarming mosquitoes, however the alcohol thief managed to get away.

“When we handcuffed him he asked us to wipe his forehead because he had 15-20 mosquitoes on his forehead at that time,” said Chief Thomas Dornbrook, of the Campbellsport Police Department.

Police are still looking for the alcohol bandit, but Wilson was charged with fleeing officers, retail theft and obstructing an officer.