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Officer J. Brutus was driving near the intersection of NW 6th Avenue and 67th street in Miami just before rush hour Tuesday when he bent over from the driver's seat to pick up a fallen pen.

With his mind distracted and his eyes off the road, Brutus, a four-year veteran of the department, drove his car off the road and right into the direction of a nearby pole.

Instead of crashing into the pole, however, Brutus hit one of the pole's wires first, propelling his cruiser to a 45-degree angle against the pole.

"His vehicle rode on to the tension cord of this pole," Brutus's colleague, Miami police spokesperson Detective Willie Moreno, told local ABC affiliate WPLG-10.

Brutus was briefly trapped inside the patrol car before being freed by Miami Fire Rescue workers. He walked away from the scene unharmed.

The car later was towed away but not before rescue workers had to bring in a crane to lower it down.

The local utility company, Florida Power & Light, shut off power in the area for several hours after the incident, both to protect Officer Brutus and because the crash occurred in a residential area.

The Miami Police Department has opened a procedural invegistation into the incident, WPLG reports, that could see Brutus face disciplinary actions including the permanent loss of his take-home vehicle.



