Worst. Date. Ever.

A Drummondville woman had her doubts about the man she picked up in a bar in her hometown a few days ago, but probably never dreamed it would go so wrong.

MRC des Collines cops figure the pair hooked up and sometime afterward he suggested they scoot off for a romantic junket to his Outaouais cottage, south of Maniwaki.

Initially, she was hesitant. They’d only just met, after all.

But, when he happily suggested she bring along her son and a friend, she decided to take him up on the offer.

Perhaps the first sign things were not going to go well happened Sunday afternoon when the man made them all stop in La Peche so he could visit the grave of his father.

Now late, by his estimation, the man put the hammer down as he sped along Hwy. 366 towards their destination. He pulled out to pass a vehicle on a double line and was spotted by an oncoming MRC cruiser. The cop pulled a U-turn and followed the vehicle, which wasn’t about to stop. Instead, the vehicle seemed to disappear down a rural side road in an attempt to evade the pursuing constabulary.

The man got out of the vehicle and fled into the woods, leaving the 41-year-old woman, her 15-year-old son and his 15-year-old buddy in the car — alone and baffled as to what was going on.

“They were quite puzzled,” said Const. Martin Fournel. “She’d only known him for about 48 hours.”

That’s how police found them and after a little checking, informed the trio that the vehicle they were all sitting in had been reported stolen in Quebec City nine days earlier.

From the man’s ex-girlfriend’s house.

He was eventually captured, thanks in part to the furious bees he’d stirred up while hiding in the woods.

Martin Letang, 40, was found four hours later walking on Hwy. 366, heading towards Wakefield, suffering from the swelling of several bee stings.

He was arrested and faces charges of possession of stolen goods, breach of probation, fleeing police and dangerous driving.

The woman, on the other hand, was left nearly penniless. After a phone call from the MRC police, staff at the Tulip Valley motel in Chelsea offered her a room for just $25, and maybe a share of the manuscript.

Twitter: @doughempstead