If you’re an American who’s feeling a little jaded by the police chases we have here, I’d encourage you to consider rekindling your love of the genre by watching this police chase from the West Midlands, which I think is near Birmingham. It’s got a number of novel elements: a BMW i8 as the fleeing car, those crazy British zig-zaggy road markings, a lot of cocaine, and, most significantly, some surprisingly detailed and calm narration from the officer driving the police car.
It’s a pretty bonkers chase! Here, have a watch:
It’s worth noting that all of it starts because the i8 driver, 34-year-old Simon Pagett, is too impatient to wait in traffic, and attempts to pass a bunch of slow trucks on the M6 motorway on the shoulder, which gets the attention of the cop, starting the chase.
If there’s a takeaway here, it can be found right here: if you’ve got a car full of five kilograms of cocaine worth about $700,000, just wait in damn traffic, dummy. Don’t attract attention to yourself! This should be criminal 101 shit!
Also, if you’re curious, that’s what five kilos of cocaine looks like. Oh, man, my nose is watering just from looking at that! Mmmm-mmmm-MMMM!
The passenger in the i8, 40-year-old Dean Stone, ditched the BMW when it was off-road and was arrested trying to hail a taxi, having ditched the coke in some shrubs.
Another treat in the video is a shot of what looks like an old Land Rover Series I on the right there:
The calm and informative voice of the chasing officer is really impressive here, as he manages to keep up with a fast car (they hit about 100 mph at one point) all while keeping in constant communication with the station and giving them location information all along the way. He even says “please!”
Plus, he says “bollards” and “contravening” a hell of a lot more than we ever hear in American police chases, and that’s refreshing, too.
(via BoingBoing and reader tips)