It’s like something from a big-budget Hollywood action movie. Car thieves choose the biggest getaway vehicle and lead police officers on a destructive, over-the-top chase. That was the formula of yesterday’s LA-area chase, wherein thieves took a stolen semi-truck up against unmarked police vehicles and even a SWAT armored vehicle. 

A suspect tried running from LA-area cops in a stolen semi-truck– until a police armored vehicle rammed the truck and blocked it in

If it has wheels and enough power to outrun a jogger, someone will try it out as a getaway vehicle. In this case, it was a huge, hulking semi-truck, albeit without a substantial payload to add mass and slow things down.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the chase started in Fontana, east of LA. Two men, 54-year-old Bill Fayed and 42-year-old Carlos Richard Mesta, refused to stop for police in a suspected stolen semi-truck.

Police officers noticed that the license plate on the semi-truck tractor unit didn’t match the rig. After verifying that the plate itself was stolen from a pickup truck, the officers suspected the tractor was stolen and gave chase. 

Now, stopping a semi-truck, even just the tractor unit without a trailer, is easier said than done. Depending on the size and spec, the so-called “bobtail” can weigh up to 25,000 lbs. And that’s before the addition of a payload. That’s nearly five times the average weight of a Ford Police Interceptor Utility.

Still, many police department vehicles, including several unmarked cars, attempted to stop the stolen semi-truck. That’s when North County SWAT stepped in with a BearCat, one of the law enforcement unit’s armored vehicles. In an unorthodox chase, the 17,000-lb BearCat made several attempts to PIT the semi-truck and end the madness.

Eventually, the BearCat boxed the stolen truck in, and unmarked police vehicles moved in to prevent the semi from getting away. Check out the news video of the wild police chase below!