5 Insane Police Chase Stories That Actually Happened
There are certain things that we as humans can’t look away from, and one of the most attention-drawing is a police chase. We often wonder to ourselves who is in the getaway vehicle, why they’re fleeing police, and how it will end. In most cases, it’s someone that’s simply afraid of being caught and is driving a typical vehicle at high speeds.
Then, there are cases where the vehicle is something far more outrageous, or the person in the car is someone that everybody knows. There have been some insane police chases, but these five take the case as the craziest to have actually happened, with people tuning into the news to see what happened next.
OJ Simpson
Perhaps the most notorious police chase to this day, O.J. Simpson’s failed getaway in his friend’s white Ford Bronco is ingrained in modern history. After Simpson was due to turn himself into the police that morning for the murders of his wife Nicole Simpson, and their friend Ron Goldman. However, OJ didn’t show and was found to have been attempting a grand escape.
The chase was slow, yet intense. The chase lasted two long hours and ended with Simpson being apprehended and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The story made headlines worldwide and the subsequent trial became a topic of discussion for years.
School Bus Blues
In October of 2020, a year that was already a colossal disaster, an unassuming eleven-year-old boy from Louisiana stole a school bus and led police on an intense chase. It’s not apparent how he gained access to the vehicle without an adult present, but the devious boy ran with it and ended up leading police on a 45-minute chase.
During the chase, the boy crashed into three different vehicles, resulting in one person suffering a minor injury, and then ended with the tot crashing the bus into a tree, all the while shouting obscenities and flipping off the officers. He was apprehended and charged with theft and aggravated assault.
Longest Police Chase
In November of 2022, a man from Moreno Valley California led police on a six-hour chase throughout Orange County and Los Angeles in the longest chase in LA history. The culprit, Johnny Anchondo, was on parole for attempted carjacking when he decided to commit his most recent criminal act.
He carjacked two separate vehicles, breaking into a family’s home and threatening them with a weapon before stealing their car keys. He crashed into multiple police vehicles along the way, finally coming to an end when the car Anchondo was in began to malfunction after officers set out spike strips.
Junior Driver
Another case of troubled children at play, five teenage children led police on a wild chase in New Mexico. In 2021 police attempted to pull over the occupants of a stolen SUV, later surprised to find out that the driver was a 12-year-old boy.
The boy refused to stop, weaved in and out of traffic, blew right through stop signs, and almost lost control of the vehicle multiple times. At one point, the boy stopped the SUV to let out the other four teenage passengers. He continued the chase that brutally ended when he crashed head-on into a family of five on the highway. The boy was then taken into custody and charged.
Tank Chase
In 1995 Shawn Nelson made history in San Diego when he stole an entire tank from the California Army National Guard armory. He was a sick individual with a large degree of turmoil in his personal life. Nelson sought destruction and wanted a way out.
After a few weeks of spiraling further, the former military man took it upon himself to take a trip to the armory with the intent to cause chaos. He led police on a slow, but destructive chase, causing over $100,000 in damages. Fortunately, nobody was harmed during his rampage. He wasn’t so lucky. Officers eventually gained access to the tank and shot the uncooperative man, who later died at a nearby hospital.