A Discovery Channel reality show star ended up behind bars at this year’s “Cash Days,” an illegal street racing competition held in Dallas Fort Worth. And it was all caught on video.
Each year, a guy who goes by “Limpy” runs an illegal street racing pot for Oklahoma and Texas. Cash Days, as the pot is called, is widely publicized on a private Facebook group and on Limpy’s own page, and this year, it didn’t go well.
Thirty-Two heavily modified cars competed for a pot of $15,500 last weekend, the most in Cash Days history, according to YouTuber 1320video. At the finale on Sunday morning, only two racers remained: “Black Bird Vega” and “The Probe,” the latter of which Jerry Bird from Discovery’s Street Outlaws piloted.
But no winner ever came of that race, and the two racers were forced to split the pot 50-50, because police were waiting for Black Bird Vega and The Probe At The Finish.
In the clip above (whose accuracy the Bird Boyz Facebook page confirmed with me over messenger), one of the guys at the starting line attempts to wave the race off after likely hearing about police officers at the end of the road. But he is too late.
The two racers blast down the street, and in short order, the Rozzers turn on their reds and blues. The Vega turns off and drives into its trailer, but Jerry in the Probe heads straight into the trap. The police arrest him for—and this is a direct quote from the police report—“All Traffic Code Violations except DWI,” and impound his car.
Here’s a look at the arrest via one of Larry’s relatives’ Facebook page:
After a short stint behind bars, Gerald “Jerry” got out, as you can see in the video below that his friend posted to Facebook.
A few days after his release, the police let Bird take the Probe from the impound lot, as Jerry’s brother Darryl shares with us on his Facebook page:
Jerry doesn’t seem too bummed about any of this, though, as he changed his profile picture to one showing what happened on that fateful night:
In fact, nobody really seems bummed about the outcome. All across the brothers’ Facebook pages, you’ll find jovial videos of friends laughing and joking about Jerry’s arrest and the Probe’s seizure, and you’ll see tons of comments from people praising Jerry and his brother as legends. It’s the strangest thing, considering how seriously dangerous and idiotic street racing is.
I spoke with Limpy, the self-proclaimed “Godfather of street racing” over Facebook Messenger to learn more about Cash Days. Limpy, whose organization, Dallas Fort Worth Street Society—or DFWSS—organizes the street racing event, told me Jerry’s arrest was only the second under his watch since he started the event in 2006.
And he was pretty bummed about it, issuing an apology on his Facebook page not only for the arrest, but for the poor roads he had to choose for the races. Commenters received his apology with understanding, and many even praised him for the hard work he does to organize the event:
A bit confused at how such a widely publicized street race could possibly fly under the police’s radar, I asked Limpy how he avoids the Five-Oh. He told me:
Its hard at times but, you’ve got to plan ahead and always try and be 3 steps ahead of the game. Its definitely a full time job.
Reading through the comments of these street racing pages is baffling: hundreds of people seem to think endangering innocent people by competing on public streets is cool. And they think it’s even cooler to get arrested like Jerry did. It’s pathetic, really.