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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Police in South Carolina engaged
in a not-so-hot pursuit as they chased a tractor excavator down
a main highway for more than an hour at the speed an average
adult walks.
The chase reached speeds of 3 mph (4.8 kph) early Sunday morning
in North Charleston, police said.
Officers on a different call saw the big piece of construction
equipment with treads and a shovel in front go across U.S.
Highway 78 around 3:30 a.m., North Charleston Police wrote in
their report.
A few minutes later, they got a burglary call from a business
that was heavily damaged and saw the excavator slowly heading
away, police said.
Several cars immediately joined in the very slow speed pursuit.
The excavator was going so slow that the cruisers would have to
briefly stop several times a minute to not pass the construction
equipment.
They had their blue lights and sirens on and told the excavator
driver over their loudspeakers that he was under arrest and
needed to stop. Other cruisers blocked traffic.
The chase went on for an hour and 12 minutes before the
excavator drove on to the Charleston County Fairgrounds
property, where it got stuck. The driver tried to run, but was
followed by a drone until a police dog and handler caught up,
authorities said.
The 53-year-old driver of the excavator was charged with failure
to stop for a blue light and two counts of malicious injury to
real property and remained in the Charleston County jail on a
$22,000 bond, according to jail records.
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