We’re not criminals, but we’re pretty sure if we were and needed to evade the police, we wouldn’t steal a big, bright yellow school bus.
But that’s just what Chad Avery Murdock, 32, allegedly did in Cincinnati, Ohio, leading multiple police vehicles on a chase across state lines into Indiana after he refused to pull over for a traffic stop.
Video of the footage was uploaded to YouTube by the Law & Crime Network.
After speeding along a highway, the driver veered off the road and into corn fields.
While this appeared to deter some of the pursuing officers in Dodge Chargers, there were Ford Explorer and Dodge Durango police cars that could handle these off-road duties.
They certainly did better than the bus, which found itself stuck after a little while – not helped by damage to its tyres caused by the police deploying stop sticks.
Police officers boxed the bus in and stormed it, arresting the driver for possession of stolen property, criminal recklessness with a vehicle, criminal mischief, and resisting law enforcement.
Multiple police vehicles were damaged during the pursuit, with damage also inflicted on various fields and yards. Nobody was harmed.
“It’s not normal, I mean we don’t have school bus pursuits very often if ever,” Indiana State Police spokesperson Sgt. Stephen Wheeles told WCPO.
“What I initially heard was that the bus driver was practicing or getting used to a route for a summer, summer classes that he would have to drive a route for.
“That driver was out of the vehicle, but close by when the suspect apparently just jumped in and took off.”
It’s unclear why the suspect stole the school bus.
