Youtube has lots of videos of this nature, search for Ghost Rider for some epic chases.
I was caught up in an amazing escapade a few years ago. There were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident. I found myself a safe house close by and laid low for a while, because I was probably wanted for murder.
I managed to get away from a cop today on the way back to college. I was going 75 in a 60 and he drove by going the opposite direction. I immediately saw his brake lights and then sirens go off in re-view mirror. However there was traffic behind me and it took him a good 20 seconds to U-turn. By this time, I had already turned right and then taken several quick turns into a random apartment complex and parked in a very well hidden place. I don’t believe there was any way he could have seen my plates due to him driving in the opposite direction and his U-turn was at least 100 yards away. After 20 minutes parked, I pulled out and there was no sign of him.
So how lucky was I?
My best friend evidently was in pursuit a few years back. He doesn’t remember it though.
He was in a small town bar drinking with another friend. They had a couple of older broads who joined the party. That’s the last thing he remembers.
A couple days later a sheriff’s deputy pulls up to my friend’s house in another small town 30 miles away. He asks my friend who was driving the Ford pickup sitting there the other night. Friend says he doesn’t know but it wasn’t him… He was blacked out, it must’ve been one of the ladies we picked up at the bar.
Cop says that he met the pickup going 110 mph. He turned around to join pursuit but it was useless. My friend didn’t realize his pickup would go that fast. The cop smiled smugly and told them to have a nice day. He then told my friend’s boss that he had been keeping tabs of on some of his staff.
To this day my two friends have no idea what happened that night. A cop just wouldn’t make something like that up, would they? Plus 110 mph on a shitty county blacktop road with a heavy deer population in snowy icy early January weather? Lucky lucky.
I don’t understand it either. My understanding (from law school) is that “Stop or I’ll shoot!” is not, in general, a permissible tactic any more, if it ever was. Police have the right to use lethal force only if they have probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious injury to the officer or others. (Cite: Tennessee v. Garner. Before Garner, I believe it was fairly common to have LEOs statutorily authorized to shoot fleeing suspected felons.)
I have a 66% success rate.
While in high school, I took orders for Wendy’s & McD’s for lunch. Of course, leaving school for any reason was verboten, so one had to be quick and careful.
In the neighborhood, there was a 4-way stop intersection with an old Le Baron sitting in my way. Since I could see far in all directions, I decided I would not wait for Grandma Moses at the stop sign, and blew around her.
As I made a turn at the top of the hill, I may or may not have seen a flashing blue light coming from her car. It was not clear. Just in case it was, though, I twisted and turned my way through the neighborhood, abandoning the clear, short-line way to McD’s.
I made it to McD’s, got my order, and now had to contemplate continuing on to Wendy’s, or cut my losses and head back. The decision was made for me as I left the drive-through.
Our SRO had been the old lady at the intersection that I smoked. Seven tickets at once, and I had been driving a month.
She told me she’d tear the tickets up if I had my mom call her today. Naturally, I grabbed a 16yo girlfriend, gave her the phone, and said “action!” Cop didn’t buy it, and found my folks herself. We had to go to the station and get me lectured up about safety, goodness and the American Way, yada, yada, yada. Bad Times.
About 6 years later, I’m in Atlanta, and playing a little dodge and weave down Peachtree Street against a Mercedes convertible vs. my Sunbeam Alpine. Racing is such a strong word…
An angry Atlanta cop pulled me over in a gas station, pulled up next to me, and told me don’t move. He’s going after the M-B, and if I’m not there when he gets back, he’ll find me.
12 seconds. That’s how long it took for me to decide to take it on the lam and take my chances. My limited - and possibly incorrect - knowledge of Georgia law told me that he couldn’t write me a ticket for anything if he lost sight of me at any time, or for more than x minutes. It’s been a while.
Anyway, I hit Peachtree Dunwoody northbound as fast as I could, went all the way to Spalding, turned right, and stomped it for 10 more miles.
Never heard from the po-po.
The third I consider a victory if I had known or wanted it.
I had a new 1985 Audi Quattro. All-Wheel-Drive (new concept), turbo 5-cylinder, drives like on rails. I was showing off for my GF, now Mrs. Ducati. It’s a rainy, drizzly day. I’m at a light, and when it turns green, I go. Fast. Through the curvy, hilly neighborhood at speeds well above the 35mph limit. I go a couple of miles to the next intersection and while waiting for the light, a cop flies up behind me and pulls me over.
First thing out of his mouth: Is this thing front-wheel drive? Nope. ALL-Wheel-Drive!
Damn that thing is fast. I was behind you at the light, and you just left like a rocket. I lost you at the first turn. This thing is unbelievable, especially in the rain. Shall we agree on 65? 
Having been going up to 85, I took his offer. Explained to the judge that if the officer couldn’t pace me, and didn’t see me after one turn, he couldn’t possibly have known my speed. The AWD simply got me to 35 quicker than most, and he couldn’t catch me, because he said he didn’t try.
Case dismissed.
Bottom line: The Audi would leave any car behind at that time, especially in the rain.
Would have been a good getaway car!
I have seen the error of my ways, and in fact, support capital punishment for anyone who runs from The Man. Now that I’m good!
circa 1966 my brother showed more intelligence/resourcefulness than I’d ever guess he had.
Minor traffic violation in a '56 ford - he ducked them by getting far enough ahead (cold weather) to pull into a real “service station”, rolled down his window, and told the guy “It’s making a funny noise”, to which the mechanic (yes, really!) said “pull it in”.
The garage door was closing as the cop went by.
You kids are out of luck unless there is an oil change or Pep Boys - type operation WITHOUT a line
I signed up for this forum just to post my story.
Well. I am one of those lucky, fortunate, spoiled(?) kids whose parents buy them a gift to an early death. A Mercedes SLK 55 AMG.
And at 18 (now 19), words can’t describe the temptation to speed. One late night, I was awake and restless and decided to sneak out and go for a quick drive. I have contemplated constantly about if my car could actually outrun the police. So after doing a top speed run (managed to hit 160) on the freeway, I see a cop ahead and instantly slow down. Then my stupidity rises…I slow down to let him get far enough so I can max out again and pass him. Zoom past him at 160 mph…10 seconds later he realizes what happened and puts on his lights, but I am too far now and the curve put me out of his sight, I take the first exit. Panicking that he could come down the exit ramp any second, and a red light was ahead, I decide to make a legal (oh the irony) right turn instead of running the light. But I was panicking and went into the turn too fast, jumping the median between lanes and pushing the axle all the way into the engine, totaling the car. My first thought was to hop and run, but I wasn’t that stupid…The car was still there. So I decided to wait for the police to arrive and accept my doom. But…He never came…And boy how stupid I felt. I told my mom a few days later (the car was towed to the car pound and I was afraid of breaking the news to her) that I was simply trying to dodge something in the road and ran up onto the curb.
Now…Like I said, I am fortune, lucky, spoiled(?) and my mom simply got me another one…Yes! Another one!!! This time, it had the performance package, so the top speed was 174 mph. But no…I haven’t been stupid enough to max it out.
Well, one day, instead of driving my old Toyota like I was supposed to, I sneaked out in the Mercedes. My curfew was at 1 am, and it was about 12:58 am and I was so close to home. But not even a mile from my house, there were about 5 cars poking down the road in a 2 lane, 2 way traffic street. Since the oncoming traffic lane was clear, I get into that lane and mash it, passing them up…Not realizing that there was a police 2 cars behind me. He does the same thing, as soon as I see the lights go off, I mash it, make a right at the stop sign.
Being in a high performance car, I can make the turn fast and fluently. I also learned from my past mistake to take my time in the turns. I floor it down this straight road, getting up to 130 in a matter of seconds while I see the cop behind struggling with massive understeer from the stop sign. Light ahead turns red, I remember my past mistake, trying to make a turn, so I decide that I would run it. Wait for traffic to clear, mash it past the red light. Traffic stops for cops, he doesn’t slow down. So I keep my foot hard on the accelerator, getting up to 140-150, he can never catch up. I was sure he couldn’t catch up and I just had to play it smart. Up ahead there is this massive hump that could really destroy the front bumper of my car as it is so low (when I checked later, my car was in good condition, the bottom of the bumper under the radiator did feel a bit loose, however, no cracks). I went over this at about 130 mph and was mid-air for a good 1 - 1 1/2 second. Let off the gas to gain control, then mashed it again. Luckily, the road started to curb a bit and he was out of sight, so I assumed I was out of sight as well. Make a left turn, mash it. See a police officer ahead, I slow down. He was looking at his phone or his computer or something. I slowly make a right turn, right past him. He doesn’t even notice me. Then I make the first right turn I come to…In the hood. A couple of guys were hanging out in front of their house, hollering at me. I quickly let my top up, just in case they were still looking for a convertible sports car. Go back on the straight road I had just came off of and head home.
The cop made me 5 minutes late home…Now I can’t drive my Toyota nor Mercedes. 
Oh well. Never again am I disobeying my parents.
Happened just the other day, right down the street from me. (Story.) Boggles my mind. I still can’t figure out how he did it.
Well, you’ve just sealed the fate of my not-yet-existent children:
I’m buying them bicycles, not BMWs…
Aha! Just don’t get them an M-powered BMW.
Jumping from a 97 Toyota Celica to an AMG powered Mercedes definitely wasn’t the best idea. I was definitely appreciative. I got good grades, was respectful, and in general, obedient towards my parents. However, the urge to drive that car is just too great. I often snuck out to drive it.
I feel if she was a bit more lenient with me driving it and not having outrageous curfews while in the car (Have to be back before 9 pm in the Mercedes, after that, switch to the Toyota) I wouldn’t be so tempted to drive it when I’m not supposed to.
Two stories. First, you don’t always have to run. Local police have limited jurisdiction, so outside of the town where they are duly appointed officers, they’re just ordinary citizens.
One town near me has some well known speed traps, but I was, I’m fairly certain, instrumental in shutting one down. There is one 4 lane road on a shallow hill that used to have a 25mph speed limit. If you were coming up the hill, at the break the road also curved to the right. This was perfect for timing your speed with radar.
The problem was that the vantage point they had to use to park the cruiser was technically just over the border in the next town. So if they clocked you from there, not only were they not doing it from their own jurisdiction, but they were pulling you over in the wrong town as well.
So when I got a speeding ticket there and went to court, I cross examined the officer on these facts which were undeniable. The court reserved judgment until the court room had emptied out and then dismissed my case.
I never saw another cop sitting there clocking people after that. From that point on, if I saw them at all, it would be parked in the access roads leading to the parking lots for the apartments nearby, which I knew was a pain in the ass for them. Hehehe. Plus, eventually the speed limit was raised to something more reasonable anyway.
Second story is a true escape though. I was on a 2 lane road behind a string of cars going below the speed limit. It was a double yellow line but I said screw it and passed at least 3 or 4 cars on an open curve (where I could see any oncoming traffic). As I did, a cop passed in the opposite direction.
In my rear view, I could see him turn around, however I knew the area very well so I turned down what was an intricate cul de sac. I say ‘intricate’ because it had many dead ends leading off of it. One of them dipped slightly so from the main road you couldn’t see the cars parked on that street. I turned on to the main access road and then onto that particular dead end.
I’m sure he thought he had me trapped but I knew he wasn’t going to drive down every street so I just played possum and took my chances. I knew the only mistake I could make was trying to escape too soon so I must have sat there for at least 15 or 20 minutes. When I finally left, I made sure to double back the way I had been coming from just to be on the safe side.
I accidentaly escaped a few months ago. I did a rolling stop making a right turn onto a busy highway. The officer was in the left turn lane across the road going the opposite direction, he shined his light on me to pull over. I pulled over. I waited for a minute or so and looked back without seeing him so I took off, I thought I better wait after all so pulled back over. 10 seconds later he went zooming by me sirens blazing.
A friend of mine was on a motorcycle speeding at about 90mph on a windy two-lane rural road when he passed a cop coming the other way. The cop spun a 180 and since my friend worked for law enforcement at the time, he pulled over. The cop was surprised he had pulled over, as the road headed into the hills and got really windy, and the cop said he was going to chase him for a few miles then give it up as he never would have caught him.
Loooong time ago I was in a vehicle that successfully evaded the police, if you call making a right turn evading the police.
A friend was driving while we were in Berkeley, and we were late for getting somewhere. We were on a city street, and there was a mid-block crosswalk with a pedestrian in it in our lane. Dave didn’t want to stop, so he swerved around the pedestrian…
across two sets of double yellow lines…
into the oncoming lane…
which was occupied by a police car.
Dave made a right at the end of the block and punched it, and when I looked back no cop was in sight. I know he was coming after us as we’d seen him start his u-turn. Our best guess is he took his eyes of us when he made his turn, and never saw us turn.
That’s not generally true, at least not in the United States. More usually, a law enforcement officer will have full legal powers throughout the state, even if his normal duty is to patrol some much smaller section thereof. That small-town cop can chase you all the way to the state line, if he wants to.
Cecil is wrong about that. Local cops are local at least in NJ. I researched the matter thoroughly and I’m quite sure the matter would not have been dismissed otherwise.
In fact, I tried the same tack in another situation on a road that was the boundary line between 2 jurisdictions and I lost because they had shared jurisdiction - but only because it served as the line of demarcation.
In terms of hot pursuit, Cecil should know that this is a special case.
edit: btw, there are SOME LEO’s that get statewide jurisdiction, for example state police obviously but also the police for Rutgers which is a state university.
Missed the edit window.
edit2: this was a couple of decades ago so I can’t attest to any changes since then
I ran from the police after breaking into a liquor store. People get away from the police all the time. I was talking to a friend I met in jail and he and I both agree, it seems we only get caught for small shit like smoking bud, and harassment. I know motherfuckers who should be in for life, but because they ran they aren’t.
When the ZOMBIES are chasing you - run like hell.
IC wut U did there