Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A Surete du Quebec police car is shown at the scene of a police search in St-Nicolas, a suburb of Levis, Que., Friday, October 12, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Quebec provincial police were investigating an unusual crime on Saturday: the theft of one of their own patrol cars.

Gregory Gomez, a spokesman for the force, said the cruiser was stolen at around 5 a.m. when officers were responding to a domestic dispute in L'Epiphanie, about 50 kilometres north of Montreal.

Gomez said a 39-year-old man took off in the car while the officers were inside the residence.

"It was found about three hours later near where it was stolen," Gomez said, adding that police weren't sure where the car had been driven in the hours between.

Investigators were still looking for the suspect on Saturday afternoon.

Gomez said the man is known to police and could face charges including theft of a vehicle.