FILE: Santa Barbara downtown.

Santa Barbara residents from various neighborhoods woke up Friday morning caught in the middle of one man’s alleged crime spree, evoking the video game series “Grand Theft Auto.”

It all reportedly started around 5:30 a.m. when officers with the Santa Barbara Police Department responded to a report of a stolen vehicle on the 800 block of Cliff Drive, a few blocks up from popular Leadbetter Beach adjacent to the Santa Barbara Harbor.

Article continues below this ad

About 15 minutes later, a Santa Barbara police officer “located the stolen vehicle in the first block of North Mills Street,” about 2 miles southeast of where the car was allegedly taken, police said.

That’s when things took a video game-style turn.

“The suspect driver accelerated toward the officer and attempted to use the vehicle to ram into him,” SBPD wrote in a statement recapping the incident........

© SFGate