Picture this: Traffic on the highway is backed up for miles. It’s not just a regular rush hour, it’s nearly a gridlock. You wonder, What could be slowing us all down to 4 mph? When you call home to say you’ll be late you hear the nightly news: State Police are “chasing” a construction equipment thief down the road. Very slowly.

So what is a “skid-steer?” It’s a small piece of construction equipment with a bucket or forklift arms. It gets its name because instead of a steering front axle, it turns by braking its wheels or tracks on one side and skidding. This makes it very nimble, but it would be dangerous at high speeds.

Indianapolis skid-steer thief flees the police

A skid-steer is far from the ideal vehicle to use when fleeing the police. But one man in Indianapolis didn’t think that through. He reportedly nabbed a skid-steer from a construction site at night and drove it down the road. when someone reported him, the police tried to pull the piece of construction equipment over. But the thief wasn’t having it.

Then the thief kicked things into “high gear” and took his new toy onto the highway. Apparently he cruised east on Interstate 465 for a while, leading a procession of police vehicles. And behind them, miles of backed up traffic. He later took an interchange to I-65 which he followed north. The chase ranged from four to seven mph. Finally, at 10:22 PM, the skid-steer thief left the interstate. He continued fleeing on surface streets.

Why couldn’t police stop him? Well first of all, the skid-steer had solid rubber tires, so spike strips wouldn’t do much. If police cruisers tried to push it around, it might…skid. But unless they tipped it over, it could just get back on track and keep cruising. I expect the driver had some experience with a skid-steer, so he might have been relatively nimble, and difficult to corner.

Police eventually called in a SWAT team with large, armored vehicles. By 11:28 they’d cornered the skid-steer and led its driver away in handcuffs.