An Australian man has been arrested after taking a new car on a test drive that lasted 6 200km, five days and almost took him from one side of the continent to the other.
Police said the 30-year-old man walked into a car dealership in the southern city of Melbourne last Friday and asked to take a 2008 model Honda Accord for a spin.
After chatting with a salesperson for 20 minutes and convincing him he was a genuine buyer, the man filled out the necessary paperwork then took off in the car before the salesman could get in the passenger seat.
He turned up on Wednesday, 3 700km away near the Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek, where police picked him up after he drove away from a garage without paying for fuel.
Officers checked the licence plates, and found toiletries and a toothbrush in the car.
Car dealer Ian McKenzie said the driver put 6 200km on the clock during his try-out.
“He’s got to have been in the car nearly all day, every day,” he told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper.
The man will appear in Alice Springs Magistrates’ Court Friday charged with aggravated unlawful use of a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of property. — AFP