Greatness in the making...
Last night I went riding with Matt (03TrueBlue..) on his shift.
Everything was going fairly normal until he hears a call about a drunken man driving a forklift down University Blvd hurling beer bottles - oh, and he had a dog tied to the lift also.
As it turns out, this was actually a Sky-Trac lift, used mostly on industrial construction sites. It had large 40"+/- tires and an extending boom. It's an open vehicle (no cab) and the poor dog was tied to the frame, probably wondering WTF?
Well, we proceed to check it out and we get to the intersection of University and I-30 where Matt blocks the intersection. We see the guy coming followed by several police units, and then the fun begins.
This guy see us and stands up on the lift yelling "fuck you, fuck you.. come on m/fuckers, I'll ram you...". He then lowers his boom and heads straight at us with the forks at eye level.
Me: uhmm Matt, you may want to....
Matt: HOLY SHIT.. (hit's reverse and gets out of the way)
The guy drives by us and proceeds to the on-ramp and gets on I-30. We follow up the ramp. Several other units shut down the freeway and block exits. This guy is drinking beers and yelling/cussing etc.. He's raising the forks up & down, swerving back & forth. At one point, he slows down and looks like he's going to stop.
Just before that, another officer went ahead and got out of his car and waited for the guy to get closer so he could taze him if needed. The officer decided to hit him with it after it was apparent that the guy wasn't going to stop and that he had the forks extended up about 30 feet in the air and everyone was worried that he would hit a bridge or electrical wires. The officer hit the guy with the tazer but the wires were pulled out of the gun after the guy hit the gas and pulled away. Then he tries to drive up the embankment but it was too steep and turned back to the freeway. I kept telling Matt that he was going to flip this thing if he weren't careful. I've driven one before and trust me, it can be done!
Well, a few more minutes of not-so-high speed chasing, Matt gets behind the guy and has his speaker on telling him to stop and pull over. The guy looks back at Matt and motions for everyone to stop and says that he'll stop. He doesn't. Matt gets closer and when the guy slows down (almost completely stopped), Matt jumps out and pulls him off the lift and body slams him.
Oh, then I notice the forklift rolling backward toward our car, but fortunately another officer jumps on it and kills it.
/ of not-so-high speed chase.
Here are a few vids taken from people following, or on bridge overpasses.
WORK WARNING for language (and lmao at "code III")
David
Last night I went riding with Matt (03TrueBlue..) on his shift.
Everything was going fairly normal until he hears a call about a drunken man driving a forklift down University Blvd hurling beer bottles - oh, and he had a dog tied to the lift also.
As it turns out, this was actually a Sky-Trac lift, used mostly on industrial construction sites. It had large 40"+/- tires and an extending boom. It's an open vehicle (no cab) and the poor dog was tied to the frame, probably wondering WTF?
Well, we proceed to check it out and we get to the intersection of University and I-30 where Matt blocks the intersection. We see the guy coming followed by several police units, and then the fun begins.
This guy see us and stands up on the lift yelling "fuck you, fuck you.. come on m/fuckers, I'll ram you...". He then lowers his boom and heads straight at us with the forks at eye level.
Me: uhmm Matt, you may want to....
Matt: HOLY SHIT.. (hit's reverse and gets out of the way)
The guy drives by us and proceeds to the on-ramp and gets on I-30. We follow up the ramp. Several other units shut down the freeway and block exits. This guy is drinking beers and yelling/cussing etc.. He's raising the forks up & down, swerving back & forth. At one point, he slows down and looks like he's going to stop.
Just before that, another officer went ahead and got out of his car and waited for the guy to get closer so he could taze him if needed. The officer decided to hit him with it after it was apparent that the guy wasn't going to stop and that he had the forks extended up about 30 feet in the air and everyone was worried that he would hit a bridge or electrical wires. The officer hit the guy with the tazer but the wires were pulled out of the gun after the guy hit the gas and pulled away. Then he tries to drive up the embankment but it was too steep and turned back to the freeway. I kept telling Matt that he was going to flip this thing if he weren't careful. I've driven one before and trust me, it can be done!
Well, a few more minutes of not-so-high speed chasing, Matt gets behind the guy and has his speaker on telling him to stop and pull over. The guy looks back at Matt and motions for everyone to stop and says that he'll stop. He doesn't. Matt gets closer and when the guy slows down (almost completely stopped), Matt jumps out and pulls him off the lift and body slams him.
Oh, then I notice the forklift rolling backward toward our car, but fortunately another officer jumps on it and kills it.
/ of not-so-high speed chase.
Here are a few vids taken from people following, or on bridge overpasses.
WORK WARNING for language (and lmao at "code III")
David
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