Video: Speeding driver hides at Taco Bell and then sends police on a high speed chase

WALLED LAKE, Mich. (WXYZ) - When police tried to pull over a speeding driver, the man took off. Not even crashing stopped him from running and the chase was caught on the officer’s dash cam video.

The Walled Lake Police Officer clocked the driver going 49 miles per hour in a 35 miles per hour zone on October 30. 

The officer tried to pull the driver over, but he ducked into a Taco Bell Restaurant on Maple Road, in hopes of hiding. The dash cam video from the officer’s car shows the officer finds the 21-year-old Fowlerville man at the drive-thru window.

“Pull over. Pull over!” shouted the officer on the dash cam.

The officer demands the man pull off to the side several times.

“Pull over! Pull over there right now!” again shouted the officer.

But the driver refused to pull over his car.

“He looked right at the officer, said what, and then turned around and took off,” said Walled Lake Police Chief Paul Shakinas.

The suspected driver of the vehicle was driving without a license, already had two arrests on his record for driving on a suspended license, a minor in possession ticket, and officers later found a marijuana pipe in the car. Even though the officer put the pedal to the metal at 83 miles an hour, the suspect drove even faster at 100 miles an hour.

“He took out two street lights, two of the large city street lights, and a road sign,” said Chief Shakinas.

That was when the suspect finally crashed on the front lawn of Walled Lake Elementary School.

Minutes after the officer arrived at the scene of the crash, the 21-year-old driver was nowhere to be found and one of the street lights had caught on fire.

When the driver crashed, he totaled the front end of this vehicle, so the chief doesn’t know how he managed to survive, let alone, how he walked away.

“He got out of the car and ran no problem, so he must be somewhat okay,” said Chief Shakinas.

A K-9 Unit from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department was in the area, but could not track him down. The 21-year-old could face two misdemeanors for driving on a suspended license and leaving the scene of an accident, and a felony charge for fleeing and eluding. The man’s father retained an attorney for him, but 21-year-old still has not turned himself in.

The charges have been sent over to the prosecutor’s office.