Heroin user led Madison police on wild chase that ended at Henry Vilas Zoo

MADISON -- A heroin user led police in Madison on a wild chase that ended at the city zoo.

Francis Thompson

Police said the incident began Wednesday afternoon, June 1st when a police detective found a 52-year-old unconscious man in his car with a needle in his hand. The man woke up and drove off, maneuvering between parked cars and a just-arriving ambulance.

He drove into the Henry Vilas Zoo parking lot, climbed over a fence topped with barbed wire and entered the zoo. An officer finally stopped the man at gunpoint behind the polar bear exhibit.

Officers found drug paraphernalia along the man's path as well as a folded Wisconsin Department of Corrections appointment reminder in his pocket. Inside the paper was a substance that later tested positive for heroin.