A wanted Wisconsin man apparently decided that when driving away from police stopped working, running into a cornfield was the next best option. Unfortunately for him, deputies had more than enough time, manpower, and technology to wait him out.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office released dashcam, bodycam, and drone footage Friday showing the wild pursuit that unfolded earlier in the week. The footage follows the suspect from a high-speed vehicle chase all the way to his eventual arrest, more than five hours after he disappeared into the corn.
Authorities say the man was already wanted on an arrest warrant and had two open felony cases when deputies encountered him Monday afternoon. Rather than surrendering, he led law enforcement along Highways 175 and 151 and several county roads.
Deputies eventually deployed stop sticks to deflate the suspect’s tires, but that didn’t immediately end the chase. Instead, he hit the brakes, jumped from the vehicle, and ran across the median while his empty car continued rolling away without him.
Deputies Chase Suspect Straight Into a Cornfield
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Bodycam footage picks up as a deputy and K9 race after the suspect on foot, with the dog appearing to get remarkably close to catching him. The man nevertheless managed to reach a nearby cornfield, where thousands of rows suddenly gave him a pretty convenient place to hide.
Once inside, however, the suspect still had to figure out how to get away without being spotted by authorities. Deputies continued searching the area for more than five hours, eventually turning to a drone to help locate him among the crops.
Honestly, the footage of the suspect running through the cornfield looks like something out of a horror movie, and the fact that it went on for nearly five hours just makes it even more so.
The sheriff’s office is seeking multiple felony charges stemming from the pursuit, including fleeing and eluding, recklessly endangering safety, and bail jumping. Online court records reportedly show traffic citations from the incident as well, including running a stop sign and making an unsafe lane deviation.
Those potential charges would come on top of the two felony cases the suspect already has moving through the court system. Charges in those cases include maintaining a drug trafficking place, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of a firearm by a felon, among others.
Viewers Can’t Believe One Thing
Plenty of viewers were less interested in the car chase than they were in how narrowly the suspect apparently escaped the pursuing K9. “How did he get away from the K9?” one person asked, while another joked that if a nearby fence had been a little farther away, it would have been “Chomp.”
Once the chase moved into the corn, the drone became the star of the show for many commenters watching the footage. “That drone footage was awesome,” one viewer wrote, while another said, “Watching him swim through the corn field was pretty cool.”
Most people praised law enforcement for ultimately catching the suspect, with one commenter calling the drone an “excellent use” of the technology and another thanking deputies for keeping the county safe. Not everybody agreed with the tactics, though, as one viewer argued the high-speed pursuit unnecessarily endangered the public because authorities already knew the suspect’s identity.