Surveillance camera footage taken outside of a Columbus, Georgia civic center shows the results of a massive police raid on a group of crazy-driving hooligans. In a view of the building’s parking lot, we see police systematically blocking and lining up the cars, whose drivers are accused of everything from driving drunk to riding on the tops of moving vehicles.
It’s almost like The Fast and the Furious, except with drunk drivers and not-so-fancy-cars. In the video broadcasted by local outlet WRBL, people can be seen riding on the roofs of their vehicles, or car surfing—it’s also known as reckless driving to police in Georgia. Two people were arrested for driving under the influence, two more for reckless driving, and four more on various other charges. In all, 30 citations were issued for everything from seatbelt violations to driving without headlights.
Reportedly, police had long suspected shady business in the area, such as doing drugs and cars pulling massive burnouts, but hadn’t been able to catch anyone in the act. Witnesses say that on nights when people gather, you can clearly hear the spinning of tires and revving of engines coming from the parking lot. The crowd is also connected to a person’s death months earlier when a driver left the group and struck a pedestrian. Much like what we see in the video, cars scattered every time officers showed up, but this time was different. Police gathered 25 cruisers and came in force to round up more than 113 cars and 500 people in the parking lot.
The video, taken around midnight on Sunday, July 7 and shared by local outlet WRBL, shows all 113 cars trying to exit the parking lot at once. The result, as anyone could have seen coming, is a massive pileup of vehicles. Police can then be seen herding many of the cars back into the lot, which happens a lot more smoothly than the attempted exit a few moments earlier.