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Article for the week of 5/1/05

Criminals Do the Dumbest Things

Death of a nimrod.

By, Officer Mac.

Ok, I'm going to dig back a little ways to late last summer for this one. I got dispatched to a burglar alarm call that I was virtually right on top of. I had gone to gas up my Patrol Car, and the business the alarm had come from was right beside it in a strip plaza. As I crossed the parking lot to the business, I saw a small silver 2 dr car in front of it and as I got closer still, I saw the front window had been smashed in. The car I was in was brand new with only 68 miles on it, and had the new in car video equipment. I turned the camera on and got great footage as my surprised burglar ran out with a large home surround sound system. Seeing me, he dropped it and took off running and jumped into his car: Chase on.
I chased this guy for a short distance before he jumped on the freeway and then it got ugly, speeds at 120 mph +. We went for at least 2 miles then off the freeway he went trying to loose me on the Access or frontage road. He ran several red lights and tried 2 separate times to ram into my car. I backed off a little and he took off full steam again. This is where his plans went south, he blew one final light but the part of the access road he crossed onto curved back under a bridge, about a 90 degree turn. There was a dirt byrm and railroad tracks on the other side. The road picked back up on the other side of the tracks. My burglar traveling in excess of 100 mph never had a chance. He hit the dirt byrm and up and over the tracks he went. Traffic Investigators measured the distance from where his car took off to where it landed - 128 feet, at which point it rolled end over end 5 - 6 times. During the course of the vehicle rolling end over end, my burglar was ejected from the car. We found him about 30 feet behind where the vehicle came to rest. Stolen property was scattered for 50 yards all around the car. (He had gotten greedy and had the car crammed full of stuff) Ambulance got there and wasted NO time in loading him up and jetting to the hospital. He died later that morning on his 2nd trip to the operating room. A check of criminal history revealed that he was a career criminal, and had done time for Burglary, Theft, Assault and a few other things. I feel sorry for this guy’s family but not so much for him. Especially for the danger he put other people in from his driving. Case closed, cleared by arrest...so to speak anyway.

Events based on actual occurrences. Names have been changed to protect the ignorant.