Police officers know they regularly have to deal with difficult people, but a man arrested Sunday is accused of going several steps beyond resisting arrest by urinating through the cage in a patrol cruiser, defecating in the back seat and smearing feces on the cruiser's interior.

Columbia police officers were sent to Moser�s Discount Foods, 705 Business Loop 70 W., Sunday afternoon for an aggravated larceny after a man stole a woman�s purse out of her hand in the parking lot. Two witnesses saw the man, whom police later identified as Dorice R. Smith, 25, get into a red Toyota parked in a nearby lot, police spokeswoman Bryana Larimer said. Witnesses gave police the Toyota's license plate number.

A sergeant found the car nearby and pulled it over, with Smith inside wearing clothing matching witnesses� descriptionS, Larimer said. Smith was arrested after a short foot chase, she said.

Larimer said Smith tried to break the Columbia Police Department fingerprinting machine by kicking it, then flooded a holding cell with water. Smith urinated through the police cruiser cage onto an officer's jacket and gear bag in the front seat, as well as the console and front passenger seat, on his way to the Boone County Jail, Larimer said.

Larimer said he also defecated in the back seat and smeared feces over the seat, windows and floorboard and on the ceiling next to the officer�s head. At the jail, Smith took off all his clothes, climbed onto a divider and tried to break the smoke detector in the cell, Larimer said. He was seen on video eating something that was later determined to be a small amount of marijuana in tin foil, she said.

When an officer was taking Smith to a hospital for evaluation, Smith kicked the door of the car so hard that it dislodged the glass and bent the top of the door, rendering the vehicle unusable, Larimer said.�

Smith was booked into the Boone County Jail late Sunday and charged Monday with first-degree tampering, delivery of a controlled substance into a correctional facility, felony resisting arrest and two counts of felony stealing.�

Columbia police Officer Latisha Stroer said the police cruisers will be cleaned and repaired. She did not have a damage estimate for the door.�

Smith's bond was set at $85,300. He did not have an attorney listed in online court records.�