‘It’s certainly unusual’: Mystery cop car chases go-kart on busy Oakland freeway
California is no stranger to wild police pursuits, but a recent freeway chase involving a go-kart may well be a first.
In a now viral video, the driver of a go-kart was filmed zooming down Interstate 880 in Oakland on Sunday while a black SUV with lights and sirens chased it down the highway.
Crowds standing along the busy highway cheered the driver as he whizzed by them.
The video has drawn the attention of law enforcement officers, who say they are looking into the incident.
“It’s certainly unusual,” said Officer Sean Wilkenfeld, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in Oakland.
What makes the episode so unusual is that not only is the identity of the go-kart driver unknown, it is not even clear if they were being chased by a police vehicle.
Spokespeople for the CHP, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department and the Oakland Police Department all said the pursuing SUV was not one of their vehicles.
Rapper Tonka Dre, who filmed the pursuit and posted it to Snapchat and Twitter, said the driver was participating in a meet-up with other go-kart and dirt bike riders who travel around Oakland.
“This particular person on the go kart was the slowest and the last in the pack and that's why he was being chased by police,” Dre tweeted.
If that pursuit wasn’t odd enough, authorities followed a stolen Budweiser truck on Wednesday in a slow-speed chase in Modesto.
A man stole the Budweiser truck, then led authorities from the Modesto Police Department, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department and CHP along California 99.
The man eventually jumped out of the truck as it was still moving, according to the CHP in Modesto.
A CHP officer got into the truck and stopped it before it entered a busy intersection.
The man, who ran from the scene, was caught and taken into custody.
For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
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