Throwback Thursday: What is the craziest car/motorcycle chase you've been in? #TBT

It's Thursday!
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The year is 1987. It is in middle of June. I've had my drivers license for just over a month at this point. It is about 10:30 at night and I am on a red light. I want to make a U turn but don't want to wait for all the on coming cars so I decide, as soon as the light turns yellow (it goes red-yellow-green in Europe), to hurry up and take the U turn before they really get going. So I am monitoring the light going the other direction. As soon as it goes red, I step on the gas and flip a U turn and kind of, but not really, cut off this green Mazda 626 station wagon with a out of city license plate. You know, some farmer dude.
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I quickly gear up and speed away. I notice that the green Mazda also speed up and is really close behind me. "What a heck," I think to myself, "The farmer must be really ticket off." So I step on it and am going above the speed limit. Still got that green Mazda right on my tail. So I turn into a sleep neighborhood (speed limit 30km, not 50km) and speed even faster through it. Still got the Mazda back there.
Finally, I turn down this one street and take another glimpse in the rearview mirror. It is at this time that I notice the red flashing light in the window of the Mazda. Cops! So I hurry over to the side of the street and stop. At that moment, 3 other cop cars show up and surround me. The driver of the green Mazda hurries out of the car, rips open my door, and drags me out of the car. Needless to say, I was about to wet my pants at this point. Throws me into the back of the Ford Econoline cop car and closes the door. Well, after waiting for a long time at the station, somebody finally interviews me and this was all a mistake. The cops in the green Mazda were undercover narcotic cops and they thought I was an "old friend" trying to escape from them... No charges and I drove way under the speed limit all the way home. Went straight to be and slept for 12 hours straight.
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Sooooo, what is the craziest car/motorcycle chase you've been in?
Let’s make it a great Thursday! KGM

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Dan Breyen
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December 14, 2023

Wow! I wonder if anyone is going to be able to top @Kristján Geir Mathiesen !

I've just had times when for no reason that I could come up with, I wasn't going fast enough for the person behind me on a country road, and instead of just passing, decided to ride on my bumper.

When I got home, instead of turning into my driveway, I kept on going and tried to loop around until he went off in another direction.

If that's not an interesting enough story, I could make something up about being chased by the local sheriff in Hazzard County with my cousin in an orange '69 Dodge Charger . Yeeeee-Haw!

TSDDUOF_EC035_H-3592842257.JPG 

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Andy Gladstone
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December 14, 2023

Sorry @Kristján Geir Mathiesen I've never been in a car chase.

However, I have been in a bicycle chase. A few years back a driver decided to get a little to close to a group that I was cycling with on Long Island. There is supposed to be a 3 foot rule when passing, and he barely gave us a foot - and almost knocked a few cyclists off their bikes. We immediately started to chase him  - we had the advantage of being able to run red lights (well, not legally but no one ever gets pulled over for that in NY) and he was stuck in a car.

We caught up to him at a red light and a shouting match ensued. He rolled down his window to spit at us, but made the cardinal error of providing an open window for a dozen cyclists with squirt bottles at the ready. Needless to say, he probably needed a shower and an interior car wash after being doused with energy drinks and water.

I'm not proud of the way the situation escalated, but I also think he'll give pause before endangering the life of a cyclist by passing too close in the future.

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Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_
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December 14, 2023

I think the craziest would be back in '98 to catch the bus to college - back then, the only bus that went to my college area.

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Barbara Szczesniak
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December 14, 2023

Gee, I'm trying not to feel disappointed in what I've always felt was my interesting life, but I've never been in a car chase. 

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Dan Breyen
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December 14, 2023

Now back in the day, my uncle had a friendly competition with his best friend. They would always be competing against each other, arguing over who was the best moonshiner.

Well, they grew up, and my Uncle Jesse said he'd give up 'shining to save his nephews (yup, that's me) but the rivalry never actually went away.  And now his rival is a County Commissioner, so he's the Boss of the county, and is always coming up with schemes to get us in jail. That means the Sheriff is always after us.  We built a pretty sweet car, so we can usually out run the sheriff and his deputies.

(If I don't get my Throwback Thursday points again, I'll tell you another story about my escapades in Hazzard County)

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Kristján Geir Mathiesen
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December 14, 2023

Hahaha, you guys! I am not trying to top anyone or make you feel bad. Just got reminded of this experience not too long ago. I had totally forgotten it and have only told this story once or twice in the last 30 years.

And a bicycle chase or other chases are very valid too, @Andy Gladstone :)

Thanks all who have shared so far.

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Laurie Sciutti
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December 14, 2023

WOW @Kristján Geir Mathiesen ~ that's wild!  Can't say that I've really ever been in a vehicle chase but these should be fun to read!  

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Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM
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December 14, 2023

It started as a race.

In my teens, probably the first year I had my license, in the deep woods of western Massachusetts, a friend and I loved to race cars.  We would often race up this 2 mile long hill. We both had beater cars, hardly safe to just drive around in, let alone race on a public road. We were racing up this hill late one dark and chilly night, I was ahead. For some unknown reason, my buddy turned his headlights off, maybe hoping to get that little more power out to try and catch me.  

In this hillybilly town, there was a young cop, on this night he was sitting on a side road near the top of the hill.  Seeing my headlights bearing down on him he swung out into the road behind me to give chase. 

My buddy had to swerve madly to avoid the cop who jumped out in front of him. 

I was suddenly no longer the main focus of our friend the cop, as a 4000lb, 20 foot, 1962, barely being held together with a rust and bondo combination, Pontiac with no lights on almost flattened his cruiser.  

The chase lasted a while, my buddy pulled over after a few miles. I escaped, mainly due to dumb luck that this was only a one cop town.  Luckily there was no jail time, just a couple hundred dollars fine for my buddy.

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timothyharoldadmin
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December 14, 2023

I've never been in a car chase but it sounds like fun.

Added to 2024 TODO list.

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Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_
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December 14, 2023

Does Grand Theft Auto count? :-)

If yes, I've been in many car chases in GTA 5.

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Dave Mathijs
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December 16, 2023

Wow @Kristján Geir Mathiesen that's quite a scary story.

Personally, I've never been in a car chase, but I did experience road rage a couple of times.

Your post reminds me of the famous Bullitt (1968) case chase scene in SF

Bullitt (1968) - San Francisco Car Chase Scene 

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Dreamsuite Mike
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December 19, 2023

I'll jump on the bicycle theme...

A young me (early 20's) used to do the responsible thing and not drink and drive, so I used to cycle the shortish distance from my friends to my house.  There was a route I could take that avoided roads and pedestrians so it was a regular thing and I was never really really drunk.  

Of course, being young and invincible, I had no helmet or rear light (to my credit I did have a front on😀)

The only part of the entire journey where I had to cross a road was by a police station.

A police officer was getting out of his van as I cycled past and he shouted, "Oi, stop!".  I kept on going and thought nothing of it, until I was going down a small road, a dead end and I was being illuminated by light, a quick glance over my shoulder and it was a police van...I knew that at the end of the road, there was a small cut through into a woods and then I was pretty much home. I only had to make a couple of hundred feet and I was there, so I went for it....Only, at the last moment, I turned and looked over my shoulder to see how far away the van was and crashed my bike...

 

The police officer, started with a very stern tone and threatened to take me back to the station.  He asked me if I had stolen the bike, which obviously I hadn't.  He then asked for my address, which he radio'd in...No match...So I showed him my drivers license, which I hadn't updated yet because I had recently moved to that house.  I wasn't helping myself.  At this point he started laughing at what a harmlessly hopeless individual I was and told me that I should walk my bike the rest of the way.      

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Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_
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January 16, 2024

I've never been to a race before, but this is something you can see sometimes in KL:-

image_2024-01-16_174509644.png

Not sure if they are high or drunk, but you can see them doing these weird stunts and racing in the middle of the night.

Valerie Knapp February 2, 2024

Craziest car-related incident I have had was when, one day, driving home after work in high school, I was coming up to an stoplight and there was a pickup truck in front of me. It was pretty loaded up with furniture but I didn't think anything of it. Then, an armchair flew off of the truck and started rolling towards me! I had kind of a delayed reaction, like, oh, that's weird but then I went oh S%!%, I better move my butt! I just changed lanes and was fine but it was super odd!

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Josh Shepherd
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April 5, 2024

I have been a volunteer firefighter for 18 years. When the pager goes off, we get to the hall, jump in trucks and go fight a fire. One time on the way to the hall, a police officer saw my car and green-flashing light, turned on his lights and siren, and waved for me to follow him while he escorted me to the fire department. I could barely keep up to him he was driving so fast. On the last road we crossed, the light was red and he blocked the intersection and waved me through. I'll never forget it.

It was awesome :) 

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