SAN FRANCISCO (CBSLA.com) — Police officers serving an arrest warrant in Northern California acted fast when confronted with a bizarre – and potentially hazardous – situation.

Officers responded to a report of a wanted person in the North Richmond area about 20 miles northeast of San Francisco, but when they arrived the suspect gave a false name – one belonging to another man who also happened to have an arrest warrant – according to Richmond police.

When the suspect was taken into custody for the warrant and false impersonation, police say they also learned he was on parole, and decided to transfer him to county jail after he became “uncooperative” and “combative”.

That’s when things took a turn for the worse.

Police placed the suspect into the back of a patrol car and began driving eastbound on Interstate 80, at which point the suspect slipped his cuffs, undressed in the backseat, and tossed his clothes out onto the freeway, according to officials.

When officers realized he was throwing clothes out of the car, “they also realized he had just defecated, started to eat his feces and spat feces at the officers”, police said.

They immediately pulled over on the freeway and requested assistance, which led California Highway Patrol to shut down the freeway as a safety precaution.

Once the suspect was secured “into a compliance safety device”, he was taken to county jail, police said.

“The department is relieved that there were no injuries sustained in this incident and the involved officers were cleared of any biohazards,” Richmond police said in a statement. “We are proud of the officers’ professionalism, composure and patience in this incident.”

CHP Oakland later put out a lighthearted statement in response to the situation.