A suspect was arrested and a motorcycle seized with help from a police helicopter.
Officers in an unmarked police car spotted the moped in Mansfield at 6.45pm on Friday 26 January and – after seeing it driven the wrong way around a roundabout – made tactical contact with it at low speed.
The rider then fled on foot from the scene in Bellamy Road and ran towards a nearby housing estate.
Thanks to the thermal imaging camera of a helicopter from the National Police Air Service, a suspect was located in wasteland and detained by police.
A subsequent search of the motorcycle uncovered a quantity of cannabis and a rounders bat.
The bike, which was found to be on false plates, was seized.
A 19-year-old man arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, failing to stop, theft, fraud, possessing a Class B drug, driving without insurance and possessing an offensive weapon.
He was later released on police bail.
Sergeant Jonny Groves, of Nottinghamshire Police’s county knife crime team, said:
“This was a good bit of teamwork from officers on the ground and a helicopter crew in the air.
“Without the high-powered camera on the helicopter we may not have caught up with this suspect, so this is a great resource for us to be able to call on.”
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