Talk about a vacation story! A family heading out of town to go camping this morning was pulled over by police who believed their van was stolen. But what they and police eventually figured out was that the license plate had been unknowingly swapped.
At about 5:45 a.m., the LAPD saw the white van and ran its license plate, finding it was reported to be stolen. They soon pulled the car over on the 405 freeway near the Rinaldi Avenue exit. “One-by-one, family members got out of the car with their hands in the air and were instructed to lie face down in the middle of the freeway,” reported KTLA. “They were placed in handcuffs and taken into custody for questioning.”
Once everyone realized the license plate had been switched with a stolen vehicle’s one, they family was released. KTLA caught the whole thing on video.
Is that grandma on the roof?
what? no police beatings? News must be slow today.
7 Police cars and over a dozen police officers. Why not go the whole hog and get the entire police force down there.
Hey, do you think you’ve got enough backup there. How about an airstrike?
I would have maybe checked the minivan’s VIN, if I was the sergeant of police.
lets see..
registration has Lic. numbers AND Vin number on it…So WHY did this really happen? After they got the driver and passengers out, they could have checked it ALL on the spot.
same plate? ok
SAME color? ??
Same make? ??
a few questions here.
Seems like overkill.
that probably was the entire police force, considering how under budget they are. Like keystone cops.
Taze their asses. No camping for you.
I don’t know. Maybe they thought they needed all the cars to block traffic but the patrol _didn’t_ cut off the suspect car. They left them free to run if they had wanted to.
That is a seriously bad move if this had been a car jacking and these people had actually been dangerous.
I’m not happy real happy with competent people with loaded guns especially when they get into the, “You do what I say or I’ll kill bit” with innocents but it happens and I do understand the guys need to do what it takes to make sure they go home after the shift.
When it looks like they may be a bit amateurish I get really hinky.
Not a white bronco by any chance?
Quite impressed. When my car was stolen the local police told me to file a report on their website to get an incident number for the insurance = they didn’t even want to talk to me.
On their way to the Cook County Assessor’s Office, by any chance?
#10 Elwood: Illinois Nazis.
Jake: I hate Illinois Nazis.
Incompetence to the tenth power. Why don’t we raise the IQ requirements to at least 3 digits. Whoever is running these mindless robots should be publicly shamed and then fired but they’ll more likely be praised for going by the book and not even killing a single camper.
In a perfect world, wouldn’t a normal cop note the cars general description doesn’t meet the assigned license number? And quick look see shows a van filled with kiddies? Seems to me an info stop to confirm above was warranted in order to get the switched lic number into the system as a stolen plate.
But I wonder what in the world made the cop first run the plates? what was the van doing that arose suspicion? The linked report does not give the reason. Nice link includes this story: 53 Citations in 90 Minutes: Beverly Hills Police Conduct Crosswalk Sting to Nab Motorists.
As a kid it irked me when cars would not stop. I thought about dropping a golf ball on the road and let it bounce up and down to get their attention. Never did it. Did once put a penny on a railroad track and was relieved when the train did not jump the track and kill everybody. Experimentation: the soul of science.
I am shocked. While the police over reacted and made a huge mistake, they managed not to hit, taze or kill anyone (as far as I saw). The police do tend to make situations worse than necessary (as they did here), but they made it less unnecessarily worse than usual, especially for the LAPD. Guys in the van were lucky they weren’t black though.
Guys… I hope this is a wake up. Is this really the way we are headed as a people ? I mean, come on… It would be funny if it wasn’t so scary.
It is amazing how close to being under the overpass (out of visual contact) they came. It seems that almost instinctively people stopping on the freeway (i.e. the ones that have a choice) will pull off under and overpass.
Now, were the cops being nice because they realized that they were being viewed by the media, or, did they actually realize that this was a misunderstanding but had to play it out… since the media was watching.
Oh what a tangled web.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Is the USA just a Police State?
It makes the USSR and Hitler’s SS look very tame.
Welcome to the USSA….again.
#5 & #16: Right on the money!
No it’s Aunt Edna on the roof.
THERE IS information missing in this post and the paper articles..
Do not think this is the whole story.
They dont say..
That they looked at the title of the car and released them THEN..
It dont say they went to the jail house and THEN fixed things.
its a BAD article. if leaves to many questions.
I agree with ECA, #21.
Where was this mess straightened out, at the side of the road or station house?
A commander does have some ‘splaining to do; why was so much resource used to corral a car with a “stolen” plate?
Let’s not judge. According to CCRO (Cheney Citizens Records Office) family members had called in sick for work.
Just thank God that Roscoe and Enos were on the case to keep everyone safe from these Criminals.
We can make fun of the cops..
but THEY didnt know what was happening Either.
Yes, it was over kill.
But, if you know what happens in S. Cali, this is defensive procedure.
I know you have seen the vids of 13 people Jumping out of a van, going 16 different ways.
A 1/2 paranoid cop is a good thing..
A 100% paranoid cop would have SHOT UP the vehicle, as they were getting out.
As I said in 22…NOT ENOUGH INFO.
Was OJ in there?
I would have just sat in the driver’s seat with my hands on the steering wheel and waited for them to ask for license and registration. Getting out of the vehicle makes the cops nervous.
Dude this is scary. I mean for me if this would have happened to me i would have been shot. I wouldn’t have laid on that ground. no fckn way.
I have seen the CHP do a similar stop. The officer stays behind his driver door and uses the PA system on his car to tell the occupants what to do. They also like to have at least 1 officer on the scene for each occupant. And for every couple of officers, a sergeant or lieutenant will appear.
Aren’t these the same LA cops who chased after OJ Simpson, very slowly? Never quite over taking him? Until he stopped and gave himself up? Yeah, I think it might be. Double standard. Since when are license plates proof of a criminality, when they’re so easy to remove and switch? So why don’t the police give EVERYONE the benefit of doubt, until they know otherwise? And not do this only for the rich and famous, and politically connected?