78 Spectator Cars Impounded by California Police During Street Racing Meet
Showing up is still a crime.
Authorities in California reportedly impounded 78 cars that were spectating a street takeover in the Los Angeles region over the weekend. An Instagram post shared Sunday night shows dozens of alleged participants sitting on a sidewalk under the supervision of a CHP officer, and it also tags various Instagram users allegedly involved in the bust, most of which have set their accounts as private following the incident.
According to the post's caption, the takeover took place in City of Industry, California and resulted in all 78 vehicles being towed for spectating. The meetups, which usually involve several cars shutting down a public road to perform stunts, have grown in popularity and have become a big safety risk in recent years.
The account that posted the photo is from the Street Racer Task Force, which is a multi-agency group that joins efforts with law enforcement to stop street racing and takeovers. It’s unclear who exactly operates the Street Racer Task Force Instagram account, but police have admitted to monitoring social media in the past to look out for illegal takeovers.
The Drive contacted the California Highway Patrol via phone and email to verify if these cars had been, in fact, impounded due to the reasons listed above, but we've yet to receive a response.
Several social media accounts appear to exist for the sole purpose of coordinating meetups to block off streets, which officials say makes it even harder to stop the activity. Other accounts glorify the stunts by gathering and posting videos from users that attended. It’s worth noting that we have not verified where or when the takeovers in those videos happened. Audio from the Instagram post below is NSFW.
Street takeovers are unfortunately nothing new for residents of Southern California. Unlike "normal" street racing, where people are competing to see whose car is fastest, takeovers focus on blocking off a street or intersection so drivers can act like idiots for social media bragging rights. Takeover participants feel empowered to perform dangerous stunts and allegedly claim that catching injuries or crashes on a video actually boosts their popularity.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
