This is the bizarre moment police officers get into a 35-minute, low-speed chase with a driver in a forklift in Sacramento.
Cops said they spotted the forklift on the road on Sunday evening into Monday morning and when the driver refused to stop it sparked one of the slowest police chases of all time.
Footage shows the yellow forklift cruising through residential streets in the River Park neighborhood at night under the glow of flashing police lights in ridiculous scenes.
Witnesses said they were awoken by the sound of sirens as California cops tailed the vehicle.
‘I was already awake, but it sounded like every officer in Sacramento was in the neighborhood,’ said resident James Nunnely, who was caring for his grandmother at the time.
Footage shows the yellow forklift cruising through residential streets in the city’s River Park neighborhood at night in ridiculous scenes
Cops following the forklift during the late night pursuit. Witnesses said they were awoken by the sound of sirens as California cops tailed the vehicle
Nunnely, who described it as the slowest chase he had ever witnessed, said police had responded in force. ‘It was surrounding. It was like all you could hear was sirens,’ he said. ‘It was everywhere.’
‘We were looking out our window, and we could see what looked like a forklift going fairly slow, just kind of casually cruising down our street here, Teichert, and then there was seven cop cars trailing behind it,’ resident Chelsea Leber told KCRA.
Police said the forklift is believed to have been stolen, but investigators have been unable to locate the owner.
‘Just before midnight, officers observed a forklift driving down the roadway near the 2700 block of Fair Oaks Boulevard,’ a Sacramento Police spokesperson said.
‘Officers attempted to conduct an enforcement stop, but the forklift driver refused to stop, and a pursuit ensued.
‘The forklift continued onto the bike trail and took down a fence near Glenn Hall Park, dragging it down the trail before becoming disabled. The driver was taken into custody on the bike trail near Howe River access without incident.’
Suspect Wayne Mathern, 47, is facing charges of evading, resisting arrest and vandalism.
Mathern was previously charged this month with misdemeanor battery on a peace officer and misdemeanor giving false information.
He failed to appear in court October 16 for those charges, according to local media.
In August, would-be thieves in California tried to take off with an ATM using a forklift in Sacramento County.
In the video, the suspect can be seen fumbling with the equipment to push and ram the ATM.
One suspect eventually managed to lift the machine, while a second suspect drove a pick-up truck as the getaway car.
The heist did not go according to plan, and the ATM later fell off the truck and was simply left in the middle of a busy street.