Police went in pursuit of the driver of a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor in California on Monday afternoon. They eventually apprehended the suspect, but not before he completely trashed the thundering V8 desert running pickup. Videos from numerous bystanders capture multiple stages of the chase, while a news helicopter caught the dramatic conclusion as the pickup truck met its fate.
The chase began in Montclair, San Bernardino County, and eventually crossed into the San Gabriel Valley. At some point between the start and finish, the driver’s door of the Ford truck ended up open and couldn’t be fully closed again. Nevertheless, the driver continued to flee, and numerous cameras captured the action.
One caught the truck driving into a Target parking lot while another spotted it at the intersection of Foothill Blvd and Falcon St. In the latter dashcam video we see the truck jump the median, narrowly miss obstacles on the corner, and then swiftly change directions and zoom past the camera car.
More: 12-Year-Old Boy Steals Forklift, Leads Michigan Police On Wild Chase
It appears that sometime shortly thereafter the Raptor ended up with a damaged rear passenger-side tire. In overhead footage from a helicopter, it appears as though the tire and wheel are both long gone and the truck is driving on nothing more than the brake. We’ll come back to that though. Without any direct influence from police, the Ford driver loses control, fishtails, does a 180-degree spin and ends up smashing into a tree.
Officers were following close behind and took the driver into custody at gunpoint according to NBC LA. Video of the truck after the incident posted to X shows just how rough the chase was on the Raptor.
A closer look shows that the center section of the rear passenger-side wheel is still bolted onto the hub meaning that the driver literally drove the rest of the wheel off of the vehicle before crashing. Maybe there’s a way to salvage this pickup but we suspect that it’s as dead as the dinosaurs.