Never before have we seen a state trooper or a cop of any kind smoking while patrolling in their cruiser. But this dashcam footage of a Virginia State Police trooper chasing down a fleeing Dodge Charger clearly shows him puffing away on a big ol’ cigar both before and during part of the pursuit.
We don’t really recommend smoking while sitting in your car for this reason alone.
We’ve never seen anything like it, but even without the cigar this video is worth a watch. After the trooper spots the Charger allegedly speeding and driving recklessly, he turns on his lights and sirens, but the suspect driver keeps going.
That’s when the trooper starts talking to himself, asking what the suspect is doing. They say talking to yourself is a sign of intelligence, you know.
As the Charger takes off, we see the cigar disappear. Did the trooper put it out and stash it somewhere for later? Did he huck it out the window? Later in the video we learn he did in fact throw the cigar out the window – sad.
What we know for sure is the trooper needs both of his hands as he manages the radio while chasing the Mopar muscle car. The suspect really goes for it, weaving through traffic, using the shoulder, and doing everything he can to lose the cop.
But the trooper maintains a good following distance and doesn’t let the guy get away while asking for backup, including a helicopter. As the suspect blacks out the Dodge, someone on the radio says a spikes trap is set up down the road. That doesn’t pan out, so the trooper gets up on the Charger.
That’s when our brilliant suspect does the trick we never see anyone do: pulling over and acting like he’s stopping just to take off again. That’s a joke, by the way, because we see this stupid trick all the time and so do police, but dumb criminals think they’re so clever doing it.
Our genius suspect then takes an exit quickly while blacked out, then crosses over a gore point to try faking out the trooper, but none of that works. As more cops jump into the chase, we guess the suspect realizes he’s done and he just pulls over, surrendering.
Suddenly, the driver is overly concerned with making a wrong move. Maybe someone should tell the guy running from police is how you really make a wrong move. After all, the trooper had to stop enjoying his cigar.
Image via State Boyzzz/YouTube