High-Speed Chase in Culver City

Ever since OJ Simpson’s wild ride down the 405 in a white Ford Bronco, high-speed car chases have become major events in Los Angeles. They’re dangerous and annoying—remind me to tell you some day about the high-speed chase down Venice Blvd. that almost kept me from fulfilling a fierce crave for Cuban food. However, although TV stations no longer automatically pre-empt shows to cover them—a highly criticized on-air slaying of a suspect ended that several years ago—they often make for some riveting live television.

Case in point:

Tim went to work at 4AM today and so was taking an afternoon nap when I heard him call from the bedroom: “Babe, come here quick!”

I was engrossed in work and hadn’t heard the helicopters over head. I joined him in the bedroom. There on the TV was a high-speed chase.

But not just any high-speed chase. The driver had exited the freeway at Sepulveda, about a mile from our house! I looked out the bedroom window and counted six helicopters. The chasee’s pick-up truck was heading south on Sepulveda toward our house!

“There’s Tito’s!” Tim yelled as the driver zoomed through Washington Place. “And Johnnies Pastrami!” The truck was getting closer.

A CHP officer tried to run her (the driver was a woman, as we soon found out) off the road, but only succeeded in getting her to turn right onto Culver Blvd., a short walk from our house.

“Watch out,” I yelled at the TV. “She’s getting back on the freeway!”

But no. Obviously not from Culver City, the driver turned right again onto the first street—the notoriously skinny Globe Ave.—and there met her doom. She surrendered without further incident. Apparently she had been caught siphoning gas in Fountain Valley (in Orange County) and had led CHP on a merry chase for 30 minutes.

“Only 30 minutes from Fountain Valley?” Tim asked incredulously. “Boy, she made good time!”