Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/05/08/amazing-chase-florida-man-escapes-police-with-stolen-cop-car-crashes-steals-second-cop-car.html
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That’s no everyday Florida Man, that’s Super Florida Man. Calling all Florida Mans, level up!
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How about that? 47 cops got him into custody without shooting him.
Miraculous!
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There is as I am told by the elders of yore, “a first for everything”.
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And that was even after they confirmed over the radio that the stolen car “probably” had guns in it.
I wasn’t clear on how the car was disabled, but smoke or maybe steam was visible. Flat tire or overheated? Is it possible they shot out a tire or got some bullets into the radiator as it was first driving off?
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They throw a spike strip at his first encounter with the cops on the side of the road after he grabbed the second car. I’m guessing eventually the tire ran down to the rim.
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Late news breaking, this just in.
Florida man escapes police with stolen police helicopter…
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This is literally one of the key ways to evade police in the video game series Grand Theft Auto. If needed, you can get them out of their cars by pulling briefly on the passenger door handle, then getting in as they get out. You rack up stars fast (sometimes desirable for a mission) and you get an endless string of fast cars. Also the easiest way to get a tank when SWAT shows up.
All this to say, Florida Man has been training for this moment his whole life.
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What’s surprising with these high speed chases are the disproportionately low penalties once convicted.
I don’t have recent examples - but perhaps the consequences for public endangerment need a review.
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Wow, after all the tax dollars spent on training and equipment, those cops are sure doing a great job! 
All this needs is more Yakety Sax…
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I’m pretty sure I heard them ask if there are any guns in the second stolen cop car. Little while later, someone says that it’s a SWAT officers car. Not just weapons, but Special Weapons!
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He needed to steal an SUV so that he would have room for his giant testicles.
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Interesting how many resources they can afford to throw at this…surely the helo and coordination with the ground is all they need. They can track him through FLIR if he leaves the car. But escalation is the first tool they reach for. The cost: three damaged cars (the ones he drove and the one they used to PIT him into the trees), and all those man hours, for what could have been a simpler situation. But it’s Florida…
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Someone’s been playing too much GTA Florida.
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Some police departments are coming around to this. After peaking in the early 2000s or so, LAPD now tries to minimize high speed chases. They aren’t very effective and create a lot of risk to the public. Now they prefer “low speed chases” whenever possible. You can’t outrun the radio, as they say.
The Justice Department also put out a big memorandum on the practice and all the problems with it, many years ago. Police departments are only now starting to pay attention it seems.
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The graphics in Grand Theft Auto just keep getting better and better. Uncanny valley has been left behind.
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Even if you accept the idea that the penalty for attempting to elude the cops in a more typical high-speed chase are “disproportionately low” (and I don’t necessarily agree with that) I’m pretty sure that a case like this where two separate cop cars are stolen will be prosecuted pretty vigorously.
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Thanks, I was desperately trying to remember how that manoeuvre is called.
Only “Swerve and protect” came to mind.
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This really struck me, too. Passing a counterfeit bill? Kneel on neck until dead. Stealing a cop car, leading a high-speed chase and attempting to steal a second car? Let him go and we’ll get him later.
This is honestly a time that if the cops had shot him, I wouldn’t really find it inappropriate. It’s easy to imagine bystanders getting killed in a chase like that.
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