Top 10 Creepiest Things Caught on Police Dashcam
#10: Kidnapped Mother
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In February of 2014, law enforcement were on the hunt for a Cadillac believed to have been involved in a kidnapping in Richmond, Virginia. Around 6pm on February 25th, highway patrol officers identified a car matching that exact description at a rest stop in South Carolina. A dashcam recording from one of the police cars showed an officer cautiously approaching the vehicle. Upon popping the trunk open, he discovers the abducted woman lying inside, unhurt. Turns out she was, in fact, the mother of the driver, and suspect in the kidnapping, 20-year-old Regelio Lopez. Lopez was apprehended by the police while his mother received medical attention.
#9: Texarkana Train Explosion
This footage from 2005 depicts Texarkana, Arkansas police officer Randy McAdams driving down a dark, lonely road in response to a dispatch call. At first glance, one might anticipate a ghostly figure emerging from the pitch darkness onto the road. But the eerie element in this scenario isn’t what you might think. Instead, McAdams starts to pick up a chemical smell. Unbeknown to him, two trains had collided earlier, leaking a flammable gas into the atmosphere. Within moments, there is a deafening explosion and a huge fireball lights up the sky ahead. Luckily, McAdams backs up before the flames can get to where he is. It’s a truly unnerving sight that is sure to linger in any mind.
#8: Toddler Runs Down Highway
Few things are quite as terrifying as the thought of a helpless toddler running down a highway in the middle of the night. That unsettling scenario was captured in this dashcam footage from a police car in Lincoln County, Oregon. On January 9th 2016, sheriff’s deputy Jeremy Gautney was driving along the highway when his lights illuminated a strange figure running towards his car. At first, he thought it looked like an animal, but it soon became clear that this was a child. Gautney quickly stopped his car and rescued the boy, averting a potential tragedy. The toddler had slipped out of a family gathering at a nearby community center and inadvertently ended up on the highway.
#7: Montecito Mudslides
In 2018, the city of Montecito in California was hit by devastating mudslides that claimed 21 lives and left millions of dollars worth of damage in their wake. On January 9th, a pair of California Highway Patrol officers were responding to a dispatch call when they drove right into the path of the mudslide. The powerful wave of mud, trees and debris sweeps the car off the ground and spins it around. Despite this turmoil, the driver manages to regain control of the vehicle, taking it out of the mudflow and into a safer zone. If you ever wondered what the biblical floods would’ve looked like, this is probably as close as you’d get.
#6: 2013 Moore Tornado
For nearly 40 minutes on May 20th 2013, the city of Moore, Oklahoma was ravaged by a catastrophic tornado. Tragically, 24 people lost their lives and an estimated $2 billion worth of damages was incurred. Greg Norman, a police chief in the neighboring town of Newcastle, recorded this footage on his dashcam, showing the tornado pick up steam as it progresses towards Moore. The 10-minute footage starts off pretty calm, but as the storm grows in size, so does the chaos. At one point, the winds get so strong, it looks like Norman’s car would get lifted off the ground. Just the thought of the eventual havoc wreaked by the tornado makes this clip terrifying enough.
#5: Gas Explosion
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On 24th February 2015, residents in a Stafford Township neighborhood in New Jersey detected a gas smell and promptly reported it. As a result, about 75 homes in the area were evacuated and gas workers were brought in to investigate the source of the leak. While this was ongoing, a massive explosion rocked one of the houses, hurling fragments several feet into the air. The dashboard camera in a police car parked in the neighborhood captured the horrifying blast, just as it occurred. Although no life was lost, 15 people were injured in the incident, with at least two of them left in critical condition.
#4: Close Call With Lightning Strike
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They say fame and fortune are as hard to find as a lightning strike. If that’s the case, then this police officer may have struck gold. Gautier, Mississippi sergeant Mark Rodriguez must count himself lucky after this close call with mother nature. The dashcam from his patrol car captured the moment when a bolt of lightning struck just feet away from him, as he drove across a bridge. The encounter was so close that he reportedly even saw concrete fragments flying in the aftermath of the impact. Thankfully, he was unhurt by the experience. If what they say is true, though, Rodriguez may have just secured a future free from any other lightning strikes.
#3: Highway Plane Crash
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… actually a plane?! Those thoughts probably ran through the minds of two police officers in Pinellas County, Florida on November 19th 2017. The cops were responding to an unrelated call in the area when their dashcam captured a small plane approaching in the distance. Gradually, the aircraft gets closer and closer, until it seems like it’s headed right for them. By a stroke of luck, it flies just over their heads, crash-landing into some trees nearby. Despite seeming quite serious, no one was injured in the incident. Nevertheless, it’s an experience that is sure to leave anyone shaken.
#2: Ghost Car
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There have been numerous sightings of ghostly figures on the road. But what about ghost cars? This dashcam footage, from a police car in Garden City, Georgia, shows the officers in a heated chase with a white vehicle. The driver makes an abrupt U-turn, zooming past the cruiser and is suddenly nowhere to be found. Just like every other ghost interacting with the human realm, the vehicle reappears after a while, only to seemingly drive through a chain link fence. So could this really have been a phantom car? Well, that’s still up for debate. However, one internet user claiming to be a Garden City cop, suggests that the driver was later apprehended and potentially charged with a DUI.
#1: Clowns
From Pennywise to John Wayne Gacy, clowns have gotten so much bad rep, they’re now deeply unsettling to many. So you can imagine stumbling upon them on a lonely road at night. Amid the 2016 clown sightings, two police officers in Menasha, Wisconsin responded to a call about two creepily dressed individuals chasing drivers. The cops pull up to the scene and spot the suspects standing on the sidewalk. For a moment, the clowns remain frozen, staring down the officers as they call out to them. It looks like the start of a b-horror movie. However, the cops are able to take control of the situation, eventually apprehending the two men, alongside a woman who had reportedly been driving them around.
