More often than not, motorists stop when a police officer attempts to pull them over. But sometimes, a wild driver will decide to try running from the cops. It’s especially dangerous when, like these critical thinkers, they attempt to get away by leading a heavy, cumbersome pickup truck in a wrong-way police chase with a person in the truck bed and heavy traffic coming right at them. 

The pickup truck tried dumping lumber out of its bed and onto the highway to get away in this hopeless police chase

Desperation can push people to do some pretty drastic stuff. Like driving a pickup truck against the flow of traffic, for example. Well, that’s the sort of top-tier decision-making that these four suspects exhibited after Ohio state troopers tried to pull their GMC Sierra over for a traffic stop.

Now, police chases are dangerous business. In just five years, over 3,300 people died on US streets due to high-speed police chases, per the DC Justice Lab. Things can go sideways fast. In this case, the driver of the Sierra refused to stop, prompting the state troopers to give chase. Fortunately for the cops, a department helicopter tracked the truck as it fled.

“Chopper’s got it. You guys can back completely off if you want to,” one of the helicopter’s occupants told the police cars involved in the chase on the ground. “There’s someone in the bed of the pickup truck.” And sure enough, a zoomed-in image confirmed that a bald man in an old US Army PT shirt was moving around in the truck’s bed. A moment later, the Sierra lost a tire and started dumping lumber onto the highway as if a James Bond-esque countermeasure. Not that a GMC Sierra is known for its handling chops, but the missing tire didn’t improve things.

Eventually, the white pickup truck spears into a 2009 Ford Taurus, demolishing its front end. The impact also claimed a black Dodge Challenger and three other vehicles before the truck mercifully stopped. The man in the gray shirt stumbled out of the truck bed. Almost like a clown car, three people jumped out of the truck and made a run for it. Only one of the criminals managed to elude the police. But not for long.

Police talked to the helicopter constantly as it used an FLIR system to get a thermal image of the hiding suspect. Despite his best efforts, police took the last suspect into custody. Check out the helicopter video below!