Stolen Ford Mustang Leads Police on Hour-Long, 100-MPH Chase Through L.A.

In this era of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and the other bajillion video streaming services out there, live events have become one of the last reasons for Americans to collectively gather around their televisions to watch the same thing. But while the Super Bowl and the Oscars certainly bring people together on a national scale, nothing gets a region all huddled around their screens quite like a good old-fashioned car chase. 

In this case, the place was Los Angeles, the time Monday night, and the car a dark-colored fifth-generation Ford Mustang. According to Los Angeles Police Department officer Mike Lopez's account to local news station KTLA 5, the L.A.P.D. began chasing the stolen Mustang around 10:45 p.m. local time, picking up the muscle car around the intersection of Fremont Avenue and Main Street in the neighborhood of El Sereno. From there, the driver pointed the Ford onto the freeways and hustled the car south to Orange County before looping around and returning to Los Angeles County, dipping into the wrong lanes and plowing through red lights. 

During the chase, the Mustang's driver pushed the car to speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, according to Lopez. Other sources pegged the Ford's top speed at more than 110 mph. 

The pursuit finally came to a close just before midnight local time, when a California Highway Patrol officer driving a Ford Police Interceptor Utility performed a PIT maneuver and knocked the Mustang to a standstill near the corner of Vineburn Avenue and Valley Boulevard—ironically, just three and a half miles from where the cops began chasing the purloined pony car. The driver then surrendered to authorities, who took him into custody. 

Luckily, it seems as though no one was injured during the lengthy pursuit. Also luckily, the last hour of the chase was captured on camera by a KTLA 5 helicopter, giving the greater L.A. area a chance to follow along...and giving those of us not awake at that hour a chance to watch it the next day.