A disgruntled construction worker takes off, driving a massive bucket loader down the street. The machine is so large, he could flip any police cars that approach him. So what do local officers do? Recruit a second front loader for an epic battle—of course!

According to Gwinnett County, Georgia, a waste management business called the police. When officers arrived, they found a dangerous scene. “A former employee had stolen a large, yellow front loader and was driving it around on the property. The vehicle weighs approximately 75,000 pounds and was equipped with a large bucket on the front.” When the police yelled “stop” and tried to confront the angry bucket loader driver, he fled the property.

The officer on scene radioed back to base, “I have no way of stopping this vehicle. He’s going to go out on the main road.”

The driver was 38-year-old Eddie Sanchez. He’d been fired from the business (perhaps for anger issues) and was taking no prisoners. Sure enough, he drove down a parkway and through traffic. Even though his bucket loader topped out at 30 mph, he refused to stop. Police knew he could smash up their cruisers if they got too close. So with no other options, they created a perimeter around the slow-moving tractor, stopping traffic to keep other motorists safe.

As the situation worsened, the Georgia State Patrol got involved. Sanchez made multiple U-turns to throw off police. “His movements were unpredictable as he navigated heavy traffic.” The driver was still wreaking havoc, five miles from where the incident began. He showed no sign of slowing down.

Georgia police fight fire with fire during bucket loader chase

The Georgia State Patrol and county police must have felt they were out of options. According to Gwinnett County, “The initial responding officer returned to the business to get another large construction vehicle that could disable the fleeing suspect.”

That’s right—the police recruited another front loader driver to help. He even asked a truck driver to help box the suspect in. These guys must have seen too many monster movies, because the whole situation felt like recruiting King Kong to protect Tokyo from Godzilla.

In the officer’s body cam footage, he orders a construction worker, “Grab your machine… quick, quick, quick.” In the dashcam footage, you can see the second bucket loader chase Sanchez down. The operator tries to spin him out in some kind of PIT maneuver. When that doesn’t work, he tries to use the bucket to flip Sanchez.

The police officer watching from his cruiser says, “This is unbelievable.” And he’s right. Later, police get out and cheer on the second operator, shouting, “Flip it! Flip it!” like they’re watching a BattleBots match.

See the chase footage embedded below:

Obviously, the Georgia State Patrol thought it had no other options to protect motorists. But they ended up recruiting an untrained civilian (the second operator) and asking him to risk his life in a chase on public roads. Not exactly textbook. If he’d hit a bystander, who would have been at fault? But protocol aside, it certainly makes for entertaining watching.

According to the county, Eddie Sanchez “was evaluated at a local hospital prior to being booked into the Gwinnett County Jail. He was charged with Criminal Trespass, Theft by Taking, Fleeing or Attempting to Elude, Reckless Driving, Criminal Damage to Property 2nd Degree, and Obstruction of a Law Enforcement Officer.”