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A Teen Allegedly Stole a Bulldozer and Crushed a Cop Car Like a Beer Can

Newly released dash-cam footage shows cops chasing the 20-ton dozer on foot before leaping onto it, grabbing the culprit, and chucking him to the ground.
Drew Schwartz
Brooklyn, US

At about 3:15 AM on a Thursday morning last month, an off-duty cop in suburban Illinois came across a bizarre sight: a 20-ton bulldozer, spinning around in the middle of an intersection. He called for backup, kicking off a destructive, four-mile chase that totaled a squad car—all allegedly at the hands of an 18-year-old kid, a local ABC affiliate reports.

According to ABC7, 18-year-old Austin White allegedly jacked the dozer from a construction site at about 3 AM, cruising through Kankakee, Illinois, like some kind of real-life Grand Theft Auto antihero. It didn't take long for cop cars to swarm White's monstrosity of a vehicle, but when an officer inched up behind it, dash-cam video shows the bulldozer lurching in reverse—backing over the squad car, crushing it like a beer can, and sending the officer inside running for his life.

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Video footage recently obtained by ABC7 shows the moment the cop car got smushed, along with the preposterously low-speed chase that followed. As the bulldozer creeps along a Kankakee road at about five miles per hour, the cops pursue it on foot, jogging along at a manageable clop. At one point, an officer jumps on the back of the dozer in an apparent effort to stop it, though he seems to mostly just hang on for dear life. Eventually—after the bulldozer led the cops on a 12-block, ten-minute chase—it grumbled to a halt.

One particularly limber cop jumped up onto the stalled bulldozer, climbed into the cab, grabbed White, and leaped off the machine with him—bringing him to the ground with what looked sort of like a top-rope pile driver. Police tased him, cuffed him, and took him into custody before sending him to a local hospital for treatment.

White is scheduled to appear in court on September 25 and is currently being held on a $350,000 bond for six charges, including attempted murder and driving under the influence of drugs. According to ABC7, cops say the teen has never had a driver's license.

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