What started as a bizarre video of a woman chasing her runaway Kia Soul has turned into one of the more unusual viral stories we’ve seen lately.
The video has been making the rounds online all week, and it’s easy to see why. Footage shared on Facebook by John Debacker shows a woman desperately chasing a red Kia Soul as it rolls across a multi-lane roadway before eventually ending up in a ditch.
With almost no context accompanying the original video, some viewers questioned whether it might be staged or fake. We did some digging, confirmed the incident happened in Clearwater, Florida, and learned from someone near the scene that a squirrel was reportedly involved.
Now the driver has spoken publicly and filled in the missing pieces, including how the squirrel ended up inside her Kia, why she got out while the vehicle was still moving, and what happened as she desperately tried to stop it.
The Car Kept Rolling Despite the Driver’s Best Efforts
Please allow a moment for the video to load.
The clip starts with a woman chasing after her red Kia Soul as it slowly rolls away. Judging by the direction the vehicle is facing, it appears to have been leaving the shopping center or entering the roadway when things went wrong.
The woman runs after the Kia as it climbs over the median and continues toward the opposite side of the road. The median does little to slow it down, leaving her scrambling to catch up.
A curb briefly slows the vehicle, giving the woman another chance to reach the driver’s seat. She tries to climb inside, likely in an effort to hit the brakes, but the Kia keeps moving.
Eventually, she nearly makes it into the driver’s seat, but the attempt sends her to the ground. At that point, she can do little more than watch as the Kia continues rolling and disappears into the ditch.
At the end of the clip, the woman appears to hang her head as the Kia comes to rest below the roadway. Whatever led to the situation, the footage shows her repeatedly trying to catch up with the Kia and get back inside before it reached the ditch.
The Driver Explains What Really Happened
The driver, Tiffany, recently appeared on the Pinellas County podcast and gave a firsthand account of the bizarre sequence of events.
Please allow a moment for the interview to load.
Tiffany said she had gone through a McDonald’s drive-thru and was tossing a cup into one of the trash cans alongside the drive-thru when a squirrel suddenly popped out. “He popped right up, a squirrel right up, and I was stunned,” she recalled. According to Tiffany, the squirrel flew toward her, grazed her chest, and landed on the dashboard.
Tiffany said she panicked, both because she was worried about being bitten and because she was concerned about the squirrel. She believes the Kia was still moving at the time and said that, in the confusion, she thought she had put the vehicle in park before getting out.
That explains why the original video begins with Tiffany already chasing the Kia. She said she initially thought the median would stop the vehicle, but when it kept going, she continued trying to catch it and get back inside.
Tiffany also revealed that her fall during the video was worse than it may appear. She said the squirrel was still near the center console when she attempted to get her foot back inside the Kia. Her left foot slipped in the mud, she fell, and the Kia ran over her before continuing toward the ditch.
Despite the ordeal, Tiffany laughed about the situation during the interview, describing herself as uncoordinated and joking that people who know her weren’t surprised something like this happened. She said she has only watched the video once, although she’s aware that people online have already set it to different music, including the Benny Hill theme.
Our Original Reporting Pointed to the Squirrel
When we first came across the video, there was almost no explanation for what viewers were seeing. Curious about whether the incident was real, we used landmarks in the footage to trace it to Clearwater, Florida, and began contacting businesses around the scene.
A person working in the nearby plaza confirmed that a vehicle had ended up in the ditch and that police were at the scene afterward. We also spoke with an employee at the McDonald’s across the street, who told us the situation reportedly began after a squirrel got inside the Kia.
At the time, we couldn’t confirm the squirrel explanation with the driver herself. Tiffany’s interview fills in that missing piece and provides the firsthand details of how a squirrel in a McDonald’s drive-thru trash can unexpectedly ended up inside her Kia.
Her account also explains two of the biggest mysteries in the original footage: why she was outside a moving vehicle and why she struggled to get back inside. Tiffany believed she had put the Kia in park before getting out, and the squirrel was still inside when she tried to stop the vehicle.
What started as a strange viral video with almost no context turned out to have an equally strange explanation. The squirrel story we heard while first investigating the video turned out to be true.
Update 8/14/26: This article has been updated with Tiffany’s firsthand account of the incident. An earlier version included information we obtained from businesses near the scene while independently verifying the location and circumstances surrounding the video.