People watching at home couldn't believe these wild car chases! For this list, we’ll be examining the most thrilling, bizarre, and craziest vehicle pursuits that the police have been involved in to ever be broadcast on TV.
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00:00 - An erratic driver gets stopped in his tracks,
00:02 then busts a dance move right before officers bust him.
00:07 - Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking
00:09 at 10 intense car chases caught on live TV.
00:12 - This is so dangerous for everybody
00:14 out on the road right now.
00:16 - For this list, we'll be examining the most thrilling,
00:18 bizarre, and craziest vehicle pursuits
00:20 that the police have been involved in
00:22 to ever be broadcast on TV.
00:24 Do you remember seeing any of these live?
00:25 Let us know below.
00:27 Quick tip, some runners don't know when to give up.
00:30 In June 2001, Deputy Tiffany Murphy realized
00:33 the sedan near her had been reported stolen
00:35 and drove after it through Indianapolis, Indiana.
00:37 - So imagine the driver's surprise
00:40 when Deputy Tiffany Murphy suddenly appeared on his tail.
00:43 - The 16-year-old driver refused to pull over
00:45 and a chase began.
00:46 After Murphy called for support,
00:47 one officer attempted to throw spikes
00:49 under the sedan's wheels,
00:51 only for the teenage driver to veer onto the grass,
00:53 knocking off the vehicle's bumper.
00:55 With no control and going too fast,
00:56 the car sailed off a bank
00:58 before flopping into a retention pond.
01:00 - Approaching the water, into the air, into the lake!
01:04 - The teen then tried to escape by swimming in the water,
01:06 but his skills let him down,
01:07 as officers armed with dogs on the other side
01:09 forced him to give up.
01:11 - As he thrashes toward the shore,
01:13 the perp gets ready to continue his escape on foot,
01:16 but officers have other plans.
01:18 - The long pursuit.
01:19 Usually car chases are pretty short and sweet,
01:21 but not this incident in October 2011 in Ontario, Canada.
01:25 - This is where all the drama began at 4 a.m.
01:28 when police say a man stole a flatbed truck
01:30 and took off, prompting the chase.
01:33 - Jason Miedis stole a flatbed truck,
01:35 and when the cops spotted him,
01:36 he went on a cruise around the province,
01:38 lasting 500 kilometers, around 311 miles.
01:41 Up to 20 police cars and a helicopter
01:43 followed this truck during its sightseeing cruise.
01:45 - As news of the chase spread,
01:47 crowds gathered to get a look.
01:49 - Eventually seeing the pointlessness of continuing
01:52 since the vehicle contained a restricted speed device,
01:54 Miedis gave himself up and was arrested.
01:56 - Police say the truck pulled over suddenly and voluntarily.
02:00 - Altogether, the chase lasted a whopping five hours.
02:02 The law came down hard on Miedis,
02:04 as he was sentenced to two years in prison,
02:06 three years of probation, and banned from driving for life.
02:09 California speeding.
02:10 Using substances and driving is a bad mix,
02:13 but in February 1997, Cameron Taylor took it
02:16 to another level in San Diego, California.
02:18 - Now he's in the driver's seat,
02:20 leading police on a wild chase
02:22 down side streets and freeways.
02:25 - He got onto a bus while holding a knife,
02:27 forcing the driver and the lone passenger off of it.
02:29 From there, Taylor drove his hijacked vehicle
02:31 around various routes, often coming into danger
02:34 over his two and a half hour trip.
02:35 Crowds even gathered to watch,
02:37 occasionally running alongside the rogue bus in support.
02:40 - A growing mob of onlookers treats the chase like a game.
02:43 - Thanks to a spike strip destroying the wheels,
02:45 Taylor's cruise ceased.
02:46 Reportedly, when he got off the bus to be arrested,
02:48 a police car left in neutral
02:50 and, with the cop dog in the driver's seat,
02:52 ran over Taylor's foot.
02:53 - It's a wild finish to a bizarre chase.
02:57 - Reality race.
02:58 Having stolen a BMW sedan in Los Angeles, California,
03:02 the driver was recklessly speeding
03:03 and weaving through vehicles as the police pursued.
03:06 Even having a minor crash didn't stop the criminal,
03:08 but LA traffic sure did.
03:09 - But the rear ending wasn't the surprise ending
03:12 to this story.
03:13 Lugging a getaway skateboard was.
03:16 - Seeing no option, the driver left the car on the road
03:18 and used the skateboard to try and escape.
03:20 - For five seconds, the suspect tried to skateboard
03:23 away from officers in hot pursuit on foot.
03:26 - But then a red truck tried to block his path.
03:28 When that didn't work, it tried again
03:30 and succeeded in stopping the skater who was arrested.
03:32 The driver of the heroic truck
03:34 was reality TV star Lou Pizarro,
03:36 who worked on "Operation Repo," among others.
03:38 The vehicle he used to help out
03:39 is very similar to that in the show's intro.
03:41 - Police recovered the skateboard,
03:43 presumably for evidence,
03:45 though an officer did play footsie with it.
03:48 - The Valentine's Day Pursuit.
03:49 After South Korean national Kim Hong-il
03:51 made an illegal turn in his car near Orange, California
03:54 in February 1996, he did it in view of a police officer
03:57 who attempted to pull him over.
03:59 However, Kim refused and the chase was on.
04:00 - Several agencies were involved in a pursuit
04:03 that began when police noticed 27-year-old
04:06 Hong-il Kim driving erratically.
04:08 - He recklessly sped through traffic,
04:10 eventually arriving at a shopping mall
04:11 and nearly running people over.
04:13 In the parking lot, Kim was cornered
04:14 by several officers and cruisers,
04:16 but he was seemingly not ready to give up.
04:18 Allegedly preparing to ram a couple of officers,
04:20 the police shot into the vehicle several times,
04:23 fatally wounding Kim.
04:24 This incident sparked a massive debate
04:26 on whether the Orange County Police's actions
04:28 were justified or not.
04:29 - Did these officers succumb to high-speed pursuit syndrome,
04:32 or did Kim pose a real danger to them?
04:35 - Following the fire.
04:36 Police in Dallas, Texas were in for an adventure
04:38 in November 2001 when they saw the owner
04:40 of a truck carrying lumber
04:42 hanging onto the side of the vehicle
04:43 to try and stop it from being stolen.
04:45 After the owner fell off, a 90-minute chase began.
04:48 The cops managed to shoot out the trailer's back tire.
04:51 However, the sparks from the rim ignited the lumber,
04:53 turning the pursuit super dangerous.
04:55 - And now there's flames.
04:56 The truck is on fire.
04:58 - At one point, the heat fired a flaming wheel
05:00 across the road.
05:01 The police even opened fire to stop the chase.
05:03 To save himself, the driver shook the vehicle
05:05 to cause the lumber to block the way behind.
05:07 - The lumber spilled all over the roadway.
05:10 - But with a firearm wound, he decided to give himself up.
05:13 - Police rush in.
05:14 He's on the ground, and it looks like they've got him.
05:17 - Air accident.
05:18 In July 2007, a police pursuit was in progress
05:21 in Phoenix, Arizona.
05:22 One helicopter from KNXV-TV and another from KTVK
05:26 were in the sky to report the incident.
05:28 As Craig Smith was reporting live on the pursuit
05:30 for KNXV-TV, the feed suddenly became corrupted
05:33 and horrifying noises could be heard.
05:35 - Oh, jeez.
05:36 (helicopter whirring)
05:37 - We're gonna pull out.
05:38 We don't, we don't,
05:40 we don't know what has just happened right there.
05:42 - The two helicopters had collided and fallen
05:44 out of the sky, landing in a secluded area.
05:46 The four people aboard the aircraft,
05:48 KNXV-TV pilot Smith and photographer Rick Krolak
05:52 and KTVK's pilot Scott Bowerbank
05:54 and photographer Jim Cox,
05:55 all perished in the terrible accident.
05:57 Investigators believed pilot error was the cause
06:00 as they had to watch radio transmissions,
06:02 fly the helicopter, and report the news simultaneously.
06:05 - And fortunately, at a tragic accident like that,
06:09 it happened in the one place where nobody
06:12 was really at at the time.
06:14 - The killdozer.
06:15 For years, Marvin Heemeyer had been battling zoning issues
06:17 with the Planning Commission of Granby, Colorado.
06:20 Having gone through the legal roots
06:22 and not gotten the answer he desired,
06:23 the muffler repair shop owner used his welding skills
06:26 to outfit a bulldozer into a rampaging tool of destruction.
06:30 - We just received a 911 call reporting
06:31 that there is an out-of-control bulldozer.
06:34 - In June 2004, Heemeyer took his killdozer
06:36 through Granby, where he destroyed 13 properties,
06:39 including the town hall, the newspaper office,
06:41 and the house that belonged to a former mayor.
06:43 - He even exacts revenge
06:45 on the home of the town's former mayor.
06:47 - Heemeyer's rampage cost an estimated $7 million in damages
06:51 and lasted two hours.
06:52 Heemeyer had enough supplies to stay
06:54 in the contraption for a week,
06:55 but after the damaged bulldozer became stuck
06:57 in a hardware store, Heemeyer took his own life.
07:00 - The bulldozer grinds to a halt
07:01 under the rubble of a steel building.
07:04 Its engine has called it quits.
07:06 - Armored assault.
07:07 - In May 1995, Sean Nelson drove
07:10 into the California Army National Guard
07:11 in San Diego without a problem.
07:13 Little did the guards know, Nelson, a former soldier,
07:15 had fallen on bad times due to addiction issues
07:18 and losing his plumbing business and house.
07:20 - 34-year-old Sean Nelson had been a tank crewman
07:22 in the Army, but police had no idea
07:24 who was at the controls until it was over.
07:27 - He found an M60A3 tank, broke the padlock,
07:30 got inside, and drove it away
07:31 to cause havoc in the neighborhood.
07:33 But he reportedly made sure not to harm people.
07:35 - It was bizarre enough to appear
07:36 almost comical at times.
07:38 - Dozens of cars were flattened during a six-mile rampage,
07:41 as well as the destruction of traffic lights,
07:42 utility poles, and other infrastructure.
07:45 Police eventually got onto the tank and opened it up
07:47 as Nelson spun the top to shake them off
07:49 before he was fatally shot.
07:51 - If Nelson hadn't hung up himself, police said,
07:53 another tank might have been the only way to stop him.
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08:10 - The White Bronco.
08:13 Days after the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson
08:15 and Ron Goldman were found in June 1994,
08:18 the police in Los Angeles, California
08:20 expected former football star OJ Simpson
08:23 to turn himself in to be charged
08:24 for his ex-wife and her friend's murder.
08:26 Instead, he went on the run.
08:27 - Reuters is reporting that the police tracked OJ Simpson
08:30 through his cellular phone.
08:32 - This sparked the most iconic police chase in history,
08:34 as Simpson and his white Ford Bronco,
08:36 driven by his friend Al Cowlings,
08:38 attempted to outmaneuver 20 cop cruisers.
08:41 95 million folks tuned in to watch the astonishing chase
08:44 over two hours.
08:45 - It has a lot of mitigating circumstances
08:47 because of the high profile of the proposed suspect
08:52 that's inside the vehicle, which could possibly be
08:55 and appears to be at this time, OJ Simpson.
08:57 - Some broadcasters showed a split screen,
08:59 one side the epic chase and the other a sporting event.
09:01 Eventually Simpson stopped at his Brentwood home,
09:03 called his mom, drank some juice, then was arrested.
09:06 - Al Cowlings and OJ Simpson flew two counties
09:08 to his home and finally to arrest tonight.
09:13 - Did you enjoy this video?
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09:21 (upbeat music)
09:23 (upbeat music)
09:26 (upbeat music)
09:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]