A Woman Reports Her Car Stolen. . While She's Driving It in a Police Chase

Something tells me this woman improvised this plan . . . because no one would've done this if they'd thought about it first.

There's a 20-year-old woman named Rachel Thornburg in Clinton, Iowa. And she called 911 on Tuesday morning to report her 1998 Buick Century had been stolen.

But . . . that was a lie. Because Rachel was driving that car in a high-speed POLICE CHASE at the time.

Apparently, a cop had clocked her speeding and tried to pull her over . . . but she took off. And as the cops were chasing her, she came up with the idea to report the car stolen so they'd think someone else was driving.

But that genius plan blew up when the cops laid down spikes on the road which popped her tires . . . and they saw Rachel was the driver.

She was charged with eluding, driving with a suspended license, reckless driving, and speeding. There's no word on whether she'll also be facing charges for filing a false report.