A suspected car thief who hurtled along the Los Angeles River with the hood of his sedan flipped up has been arrested after a pursuit that played out like a stunt sequence across Southern California screens. The chase started on surface streets, entered the concrete river channel, and ended on a grassy embankment, prompting investigators to assess how the stolen vehicle became a dangerous spectacle.
Authorities said the driver continued accelerating despite limited visibility, weaving between water, slick concrete, and bridge pillars while patrol units monitored from above. The incident has renewed questions about how law enforcement manages such unpredictable pursuits and why the Los Angeles River has become a recurring backdrop for drivers who treat its basin as an escape route instead of critical flood control infrastructure.
From Compton streets to the river channel
Investigators say the pursuit began when Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department spotted what they believed to be a stolen vehicle in the Compton area early on a Friday in Feb. According to officials, the driver refused to yield when units attempted a traffic stop, turned onto nearby arterials, then accelerated away as additional units and an airship moved to track the car from above. The suspected driver of a stolen car soon left ordinary roadways entirely, steering toward an access point that leads into the Los Angeles River channel and using the sloping concrete as an improvised ramp into the basin.
Once inside the channel, the car pushed along the shallow water and damp concrete floor of the Los Angeles River, at times passing beneath overcrossings where pedestrians and early commuters watched from above. Reporting on the incident describes how the stolen vehicle weaved along the channel floor while patrol vehicles remained on parallel streets, coordinating over radio rather than following directly into the basin. One account of the Stolen car suspect in the River notes that the chase unfolded over multiple segments of the channel, with the driver repeatedly adjusting speed as the water level and surface conditions shifted beneath the tires.
A hood flipped up and a blinded windshield
The pursuit became far more surreal when the car’s Hood suddenly flipped upright, slamming against the windshield and blocking the driver’s forward view as he continued to accelerate along the River. Video shared from a helicopter and from bystanders shows the sedan still moving at significant speed despite the hood covering the front of the vehicle, forcing the driver to rely on glimpses out the side windows and perhaps the narrow gap where the metal did not fully seal against the glass. A widely shared social media clip showed the hood acting like a sail as the car moved through the channel, illustrating how little of the roadway the driver could see…