Ross police: Officer hurt when fleeing shoplifter crashes car into tree, backs up and crashes into house

A Ross police officer suffered an ankle injury Wednesday afternoon after he tried to stop a woman accused of stealing multiple eyeglass frames from a store from fleeing in her car.

Shortly after receiving a report of a retail theft from the America’s Best eyeglasses store in The Block Northway on McKnight Road, the patrol officer spotted a gray Ford Focus near the shopping center driven by a woman and tried to pull the car over, according Detective Brian Kohlhepp.

Police said Sabrina Eisenberg, 46, of Sharpsburg, began to comply, but then pulled away and fled south along McKnight Road onto Brown’s Lane.

The officer caught up with the suspect when Eisenberg veered off the road and struck a tree in the front yard of a home.

The officer, whose name was not released, approached the car, which was still running, Kohlhepp said.

The woman “was attempting to operate the vehicle and the officer feared for the safety of construction workers in the area,” the detective said. “He reached through the driver’s window and attempted to turn off the car.”

Eisenberg allegedly reacted by putting the car into reverse and backing up through the yard before she crashed into the house.

The officer, who was thrown from the vehicle, was transported to a hospital for treatment. Eisenberg also was taken to a local hospital after she complained that she was in pain.

Kohlhepp said Eisenberg has multiple of outstanding warrants from other police agencies.

In addition to those warrants, she faces theft charges as well as charges related to fleeing from the officer and the injury he sustained.

According to court records, Eisenberg has been arrested 17 times since 2009 for retail theft and related charges.

In 2018, she was one of two people charged with stealing $2,700 in items from a store in the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Fraser.