Created: 4/29/2004 11:35:50 PM 
By Jamie Muro First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Nothing takes the edge off like a cold drink. He needed it after his "Chilly Willy" van was hijacked, then subsequently smashed in a wild police chase.
"It tastes good," he smiles as he rummages through his now beat-up van. "Chilly Willy" is aptly named, as the company specializes in frozen, flavored ice.
Police say around seven o'clock Thursday, they stopped an unnamed suspect near downtown on a traffic violation. Information came back that the man had several warrants. After putting on one handcuff, the suspect escaped, jumped into his car, and sped off.
Minutes later, as he was speeding west on the Matthews Bridge, he was involved in an accident. Around that same time, Joe Lane was heading east, getting ready to go home after making his last delivery. That's when he, and the suspect, first met.
"He came across and just pulled the door and jumped in the van, and when he jumped in the van he told me to pull off. I looked down and he had his hands in his shirt and he told me to drive and I did what he said," Lane said.
As the pair continued west, Joe looked for a way out of the situation, trying to get the attention of police officers.
"Just looking over and just praying, just praying, that they'd get up there and get in front of me so I could jump out of this van," Lane said.
Finally, Joe pulled off at a gas station on Kings, jumped out of his truck and ran. The suspect took the driver's seat and headed back east, crossing the Hart Bridge, exiting the east Atlantic exit.
By this time, officers had put down spikes to blow his tires. The suspect took a hard right turn onto Jork, getting stuck in the dead-end neighborhood. He rammed into two police cars, and then tried to stop police from coming inside the van.
"He wouldn't get out of the van, he locked the doors," said Lt. Michelle Cook with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Police eventually had to pull the suspect out of the van. As for Joe, this incident in his "Chilly Willy" van will be a moment frozen in time for some time.
"I'm going to have burglar bars put on my truck," Joe said laughing.
The suspect, whose name police hadn't released as of this writing, could be charged with resisting arrest, fleeing an officer, hit and run crash, abduction, and aggravated battery.
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