Have you ever been in a car chase?

General Discussion
1

I was sitting by the fire last night taking a trip down memory lane and I was thinking about my cousin that I have lost contact with and some hijinks we endured together. One incident involved a being chased by two biker looking guys on motorcycles while I was driving a 85 ford midsized Ltd wagon with the 3.8

Have you ever been chased? If so what started it and what was the end result?

It was July 1995 and there was a heatwave bearing down on the midwest, I had spent the day with my cousin putting together an arrow metal storage shed on my property which was was to serve as a place to store my tools and use as a makeshift workshop. It was around 5 pm or so and We were hot and tired so we both showered and decided to get something for dinner. I didn’t have a/c in the trailer so we wanted to go somewhere cool.

My cousin had a friend named dave who he hung around with and occasionally the three of us would do something together. Dave was a nice guy, but a bit odd and he had little impulse control. We swung by daves parents house to see if he wanted to go with us and he did, there was a chance of rain that night so we took my car instead of daves jeep. We went to town and ate dinner at a buffet, we started talking about going to a movie and decided on apollo 13, I really didn’t want to go but it was still warm out and My car and house had no a/c and the movie theater did so off we went.

We were leaving town to head to the city that had the movie theater and we had all of the windows down. We pulled up to a stoplight and there were two bikers on Harleys sitting there in the turn lane, one of the bikes had a purplish ghost flame paint job so it looked like a purple bike. Dave was sitting in the back seat and yelled out the window, “excuse me… Thats a nice bike…Does it come in mens?” They guy actually shut his bike off to better hear what dave was tring to tell him. Dave thought this was really hysterical until the beastly dude started to get off the bike and was cussing and yelling. I panicked and instead of going straight I turned right from the left lane and took off, crazy dave decided to give them the finger while we peeled away. Now dave thought this was really funny, and my cousin and I were trying to figure out what to do, all while yelling at dave for being stupid. It was starting to get dark and we were headed down a state highway, I sped up to eighty at one point but went back down to the speed limit once I realized I was never going to outrun those bikes.

We went for a mile trying to figure out what to do while the bikes were behind us. I figured if they were going to shoot us they would have already done so, but I was afraid what would happen once we stopped. I decided the only way to lose them was by finding a gravel road, so I took a side road and took many turns with the bikers still following us and finally I spotted a gravel road and at the last second I turned onto it and floored it. The dust was so great I couldn’t tell for sure if they quit chasing us but i didn’t slow down.

I continued on for a bit and at this point I was lost and I slowed down and seen no signs of the bikers. Now I had to get back to the main road without running into the bikers again, it took a while but I figured out where we were and continued onto the movie theater without incident.

As we headed back home that night it was around midnight and I was keeping an eye out for the angry bikers. It also concerned me because the 84 ltd stuck out like a sore thumb due to distinct body damage it had on the left rear door and rear quarter. I never ran into those guys again and figured they must have not been from that area.

I lost touch with my cousin because he got involved in things I wanted no part of, but sitting by the fire last night I closed my eyes and suddenly it was a July night in 1995… Good times…

2

Been chased. Headed straight for the nearest police station. Had the “chaser” pulled up behind me, I would have locked the doors, pushed the horn button, and kept it pushed until the cops came out. There are some really crazy people out there.

3

@the same mountainbike

That would have probably been a good idea, honestly it never even crossed my mind in part because i didn’t know where the police station was in the town we were in.

I really don’t blame those guys for chasing us, I blame dave. They were minding their own business and he riled them up. Dave was crazy, one time were were leaving a mc donalds around 930 at night in the dead of winter and as we were leaving out of the blue dave went up to the counter and picked up this cookie jar and display thing and started to walk out, we told him to put it back and the lady behind the counter was yelling at him, he just kept walking with it and we got into his jeep and he took off. We have no idea why he did that… but we did have cookies for dessert that night.

He did the oddest things sometimes…

4

Yeah, I have “fond” memories of some of my friends mouthing off and causing bad situations

Unfortunately, the offended parties usually didn’t approach my big mouthed friends, but me instead

It’s quite possible they weren’t sure exactly which one of us said the offending remark, and just approached the closest guy

I can’t think of the number of times I had to politely say “He’s drunk. He doesn’t know what he’s saying. I’m really sorry. We don’t want any trouble.”

As I was talking to one of these guys, defusing the situation, it was obvious he was holding a blade in his jacket pocket.

Thankfully, it usually worked.

Perhaps that makes me a sissy, but I’d like to keep my teeth in my mouth, not on the floor

5

A coworker of mine bought a used Dodge Polara that was used by the county cops, a distinctive brown color. After work we decided to park behind a RR bridge and try to pull people over. He had a large flashlight he hung out the window that looked like a spotlight.

We were successful in our first attempt and got someone to pull over and when he did we just passed them by laughing our heads off. (youth is wasted on the young).

On our second attempt we tried to pull over a carload of our peers, miscreants like us. They did not fall for it so we went back to our hide. After a bit they came back, we peeled out and then it was on.
They chased us for a bit and after it over we went back to work, I jumped in my car, headed home and that was the end of my evil ways. I figured I was not cut out to be a teenage delinquent.

6

Been chased but not in a car. When we were kids we hid under an old wooden bridge with water baloons. The plan was when we heard a car hit the planks, we’d jump out and throw the baloons and run. First car over turned out to be a model T type with the split windshied and an old guy driving. Time we realised it the baloons were already in the air and a direct hit in the open windshield. The thing had pretty good brakes too as it skidded to a stop and he sure could run for an old guy. Chased us down the RR tracks and we had to circle all around town a couple miles to make it back home again. Didn’t do that again.

7

I have a cousin I don’t really stay in touch with either. We didn’t get chased in a car. We got chased by some guys in a car. We were maybe 10 or 11 and on bicycles. They decided to chase us because we were throwing rotten crab apples at cars. Did I mention that I don’t keep in touch with the cousin anymore? I was never a trouble maker - really. He was, and all he ever thought about was how to cause trouble. I kid you not. It was his life’s ambition. He didn’t like his parents very much and he saw it as his way of getting back at them.

Anyway, we rode off on a trail in the woods where the car couldn’t follow. We hunkered down for while until we figured they’d moved on. But upon coming back out of the trail found them beating the brush for us. We sprinted our way to one of his neighbor’s houses and ran - quite uninvited - into their house through the back door. Luckily they were a nice old couple who weren’t surprised that a couple of kids had been up to some mischief and we hung around there watching a baseball game with the man of the house until it had all blown over and the guys went away.

8

I’ve chased a few times, for good reason, but never been chased. It usually involved someone putting me near death while I was on a motorcycle and questioning their ancestry after catching up with them.

The story by WheresRick reminds me of a friend of mine who had a few words with a guy who just about killed him while the friend was on a Harley on night. The friend (fairly large, bearded, and president of an outlaw motorcycle club chapter all of whom shall remain nameless) caught up with the guy at the traffic light and told him to learn how to drive or get off the roads after getting the car driver to roll down the window.

The guy in the car (apparently drunk or stupid on a Sat. night) told my friend where to go in no uncertain terms.
The biker friend put the bike on the sidestand, got off, and proceeded to beat the stuffing out of the errant driver right where he sat in the car at the intersection.
It led to an assault charge but he considered the misdemeanor fine money well spent.

9

I was only on the chasing end of a serious chase one time. I had a childhood buddy who grew up in an abusive household. All problems were solved with violence. When he graduated fro HS, he immediately joined the army, and volunteered for Viet Nam as an infantryman. He was home in '69 after two tours, waiting to deploy again (volunteered). He loved the combat, loved the violence, loved the lack of normal constraints. He was truly unbalanced. The two of us got together and decided to head in his car to a pizza place. Someone cut him off on Main Street, and he went after him. We caught up at the pizza place and he went after the guy in the parking lot. If I hadn’t stopped him, there’s no telling what he would have done.

I sometimes wonder what happened to him. I tried looking him up a few years ago, but he’s probably either dead or in prison somewhere.

I’ve lost too many friends to that damned war. But in his case the violence and lack of humanity was “home”.

10

@thesamemountainbike that sounds like a guy I used to run around with a long time ago. He was prone to getting into fights at less than the drop of a hat. One time he got into 3 random and unrelated fistfights in one evening; one of them after being discharged from the ER for treatment after Fight Two.

He joined the Marines, saw combat duty in Viet Nam, and signed on for another tour.
I lost touch with him after that but did hear that he committed suicide some years back.

The car driver that I mentioned previously as getting whipped by a biker friend of mine who chased him down might not have been as mouthy if he knew the friend had just gone through having Murder One charges dropped against him.
Those charges should never have been filed due to the number of witnesses. It was a DA grandstanding for the public; nothing more.

Sensibly speaking, it’s not a good idea to run another driver down as one never knows how that may turn out. It’s best to take a deep breath and try to get any grievance go.
It’s easier for me to say that now in the older years… :slight_smile:

11

While driving home from work on the north bound lane of a divide highway I saw a driver speeding down the opposite opposite south bound lane, forcing cars off the road. I was driving my wonderfully high powered Mazda B2000 pick up but I sped up as much as I could until he crossed over into my lane and I gave chase to get his license number. I was working as a policeman at the time but being off duty and driving a civilian piece of junk, I had no intention of stopping him. It took me nearly ten miles to get close enough to get his plate number. He must have thought I was as crazy as he. I had the pedal floored all of the time it seemed but the guy was a lunatic and had to be identified. I got his plate number to the state police (as did several other good citizens) and they did eventually pick him up.

Other then that, all my chases ended a lot easily by flashing the blue lights. The absolute most difficult were motorcycles. They just disappeared like I was standing still. You put the lights on immediatly and hope they volunteer to stop. Otherwise, You just get on the horn and do an all call and hope some one else on the same route can identify and block or flash their lights and hope they slow down. In general, if there are enough streets, you just wave goodbye, call the next town and identify low flying aircraft in the area. ( they knew what you were talking about). For one thing, I and most others never wanted to be the one to cause a motorcycle crash by being too agressive with them. Even if they were speeding, you don’t want to take the chance with their lives. It isn’t like the movies. You really give up chases as soon as you feel it’s safer too then drive too fast in populated areas. Everyone wants to get home to their families. I road a Norton 750 for a while. It’s impossible for any car to catch a powerful motorcycle if they don’t want you too and unsafe for everyone if you try.

I would advise no one ever chase any one else with a car for macho reasons. If it doesn’t end well, you will always regret it.

12

Only once, and let’s just say a 1966 Mustang only handles well in the movies. In real life they are like driving a brick only not as steady.

13

OK4450, I know exactly what you mean when you say that it’s easier when we get older. I guess that must be what the word “wisdom” means.

Dag, from everything I’ve read police training has changed over the years to not getting into high speed chases. In today’s world, with today’s technology, it would seem in populated regions to be unnecessary and dangerous. I don’t know what would be acceptable in rural sections of the plains states. I’ve never been a cop, so my perspective is only one from an uneducated (in the field of law enforcement) person. It’s probably full of bad assumptions and shallow knowledge.

14

My girlfriend (now my wife) and I were chased by a jealous boyfriend for several miles. We finally pulled over at a local drive-in restaurant with a lot of people present. The “boyfriend” thought my girlfriend was his former girlfriend but she just resembled her. There was a lot of 5’2", blonde, blue eyed girls back in the day. That guy got a job at the same supermarket that I worked at and we became good friends. I never let him forget the “chase” though.

15

“Dag, from everything I’ve read police training has changed over the years to not getting into high speed chases.”

@Same
I can’t speak for any other states, but being trained by the SP academy, that has always been the case for over thirty years. It all depends upon ones definition of high speed. In a residential area without sidewalks and a busy time of the day, 50 mph and even lower was often the cut off point. If we made it to interstate, we would use traffic as a guide and always notify the SP we were in pursuit. But, speeds approaching 90 were never out of the question; but then, only for very limited times. We were reminded that town police aren’t trained and have the equipment that state police often do. A very quick, temporary surge to a speed higher then the perpetrator so they may think they will not get away is often the strategy. It it doesn’t work, our chief always instructed us to break it off and get on the radio.

The “French Connection” speed chases are for show and always have been since police training has been unified throughout the country and police are constantly reminded that the public can be put more at risk trying to stop a speeder that way. Always has been the case for all I can remember.

We had our resident JOCKEY as every one does, who damaged the cruiser we shared one shift change so badly chasing a guy in a 4wd through a field, I had to use a hand held two way, a blue attached to a cigarette lighter and my Mazda Pick up to do security checks that following night shift. Luckily the SP barracks was just a few miles away and I could use their dispatch that evening. In the years I worked I had but one accident in a pursuit…I hit a cat. That was a stern reminder it could have been something worse. That was everyone’s biggest fear doing traffic.

16

dagosa, that was you?!? Sorry, I took off as soon as I saw the cherries light up. :wink: That was in my wilder youth riding bikes.

I once took off in a Camaro and did a series of quick turns (no significant speeding of course) on some back country roads to see if I could lose him but the cop was too good/persistent so I pulled over and waited for him to catch up. “You’re taking a strange route to get to your destination” when he asked what I was up to and I gave him some cockamamie excuse. He chuckled and let me go.

When I was around 25 I had this '69 vette I picked up relatively cheap. I was headed back home on a Sunday morning in super light traffic on the expressway after a weekend party at a college dorm. Leather jacket, scruff beard…doing about 90 when a statie went by in the opposite direction. I saw his brake lights in the rear view mirror but figured there was no way he was going to cross the median and come after me. I bumped it up a bit for awhile just to be sure. It was probably 10 miles later I saw the cherries coming up at warp speed behind me so I slowed down and pulled over. The exchange was classic. Do you know why you’re being pulled over? No sir. You were speeding. I was?? Look, when you’re passing traffic like that, you can bet you’re speeding. Do you know how fast I had to go to catch up with you?!? No, but it must have been fun! He smiled. License and registration please. 10 minutes later… what year is this? It’s a '69 sir. Look, I have a '68 rag myself and I know these can get out of hand, please slow down, OK?

People will say warnings, or those instances where you’re let go without a ticket, just encourage more of the same. For me, they had a more profound, positive effect on my future actions than the tickets I did get, ever did…

17

I’ll admit it. Back in high school a friend had bought a stripped down 500cc BSA that was running poorly and asked me to check it. I filed and adjusted the points and cleaned the plugs and took it around the block but it was running so good that I drove over to the highway and opened it up. A Highway Patrol car turned on the lights and knowing that without a tag I was either going to get away or pay a heck of a fine so off I went. I doubled back across the median twice and got enough distance to turn into a neighborhood where for a while it seemed like I could out maneuver him but then the city police showed up. I ran up drive ways and through yards to exit on the next block repeatedly and got the bike back to the owner.

18

How about choosing to be…’‘chased’’ ?

Riding with my dad as a younger kid ( waaay back before cell phones ), we were on the freeway and came upon an obviously drunk driver weaving, speeding up, slowing down, etc.
Dad says to me ‘’ I’ll bet he’ll just follow the set of taillights in front of him since he can’t see much else…watch this’‘
So at one point, when that guy was on a right wandering arc, dad went around and got in front of him…slowed down to get right in front of him and tested his theory … speed up, slow down , a little right a little left and sure enough the guy followed his every move.
’'bingo we got him ‘’ dad says out loud to me. I was still curious what he was up to till we got to the next exit .
Dad slowly eased off the exit ramp …drunk faithfuly following…and turned into the gas staion there…drunk still following…came to a stop…drunk stopped too.
Dad got out and went to his car and took his keys into the station where they called authorities.

19

When I was a kid, long before I had a license, me and a car load of other miscreants were chased by the police through a wealthy suburban neighborhood at night. I had a 65 Buick Sport Wagon. I was driving though backyards and the cops were not willing to follow. Fortunately I was able to make it back to the family car lot and took a different car. There were no plates on the car and we were never apprehended.

I felt pretty lucky not to get busted and it was around this time I stopped drinking and driving.

It’s kind of funny to think about giving up booze at 14 years old. Different world then.

20

My dad was working third shift and when he got off work he started down the road and some punks in a Camaro came up behind him and tried to start a bunch of cr**. They started flashing high beams and acting like they were going to ram his Ford Ranger. After a bit they sped around and got in front of him and slammed on the brakes, speeding up and slamming brakes again and again. This went on for several minutes.

Well dad was not afraid of anything but he said he was starting to get scared. Then all of a sudden something clicked and it was ON. I’m sure some of you have had those moments. Dad downshifted the Ranger stepped on the gas and whacked the rear of the Camaro. All of a sudden he could hear the Camaro downshifting an the engine speeding up but they could not get away. Dad pushed those punks 3 or 4 city blocks. He then backed off, the Camaro took off and they left like they owed him money!

Two nights later dad was sitting at a stop light and who pulls up next to him? The Camaro. Dad leaned over and rolled down his window and got the drivers attention with a series of colorful metaphors that I’m sure included comments about his mother. When the Camaro driver realized who it was he slumped down in his seat and when the light turned green to go straight this punk hooked a hard right turn and floored it like there was no tomorrow.