California driver in custody after multiple vehicle thefts and long police chase

People often joke that life is sometimes like Grand Theft Auto, but one southern California driver appears to have wanted to live out a real-life video game challenge. Police are holding the driver after they allegedly stole several cars and rammed police vehicles on Wednesday.

Police say the chase started around 5 pm when they received reports of a person driving erratically and speeding in Anaheim. Officers gave chase, and eventually, the driver ditched the car and stole a van. The pursuit spilled out into street traffic, but not before the driver smashed the van and ran into a police cruiser.

In a scene cut straight from the video game, the driver is said to have driven onto the freeway and then back into a residential area, where they left the van and ran into a nearby home. There, they reportedly stole the keys to a pickup truck, evading the homeowners in the process. Video footage shows the driver almost hitting the truck’s owners on their way out of the driveway, leaving the owner’s mother with injuries from trying to stop the theft. After a flat tire and several more collisions, the truck reportedly stopped at a gas station, where officers surrounded the vehicle.

More than a dozen patrol cars surrounded the truck, but the driver reportedly continued ramming the cruisers. At some point, police got tired of the drama and started firing into the truck, eventually stopping it. An officer approached the truck with a shield and pulled the driver out.

Miraculously, the driver is reported to have emerged alive and was taken into custody. We don’t know if they were injured or how much damage they caused on the way to the gas station, but the penalty for this kind of action won’t be light.