BELLEVUE, Wash. – Two men employed at a local auto dealership were caught in the act of attempting to film a short video clip to post on YouTube Sunday night.
The video clip consisted of capturing a late model Infiniti G35 attempting to drive recklessly through a parking lot.
The driver and passenger selected a vacant parking lot next door to the Washington State Patrol office in Bellevue to do the filming. As the driver began to race his engine and squeal his tires in a stunt described as drifting, a trooper pulled into the WSP office next door.
As the trooper exited his patrol car his attention was immediately alerted by the noise and commotion in the parking lot next door.
The Infiniti continued to drive recklessly as his passenger, who was now standing on the curb, videotaped the driving.
The trooper entered the vacant parking lot and stopped the Infiniti and its occupants.
As the trooper arrested the driver on a charge of reckless driving, he observed a video camera still recording as it lay on the floorboard of the car. A closer inspection of the video camera revealed the entire episode on tape.
A representative of the auto dealership contacted the trooper to recover the Infiniti which had just been obtained on a trade in. The driver and passenger worked for the dealership but are now unemployed.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from North Bend, was booked into the King County Jail on felony malicious mischief and reckless driving charges. The passenger, a 21-year-old Bothell man, was also booked into the King County Jail on a charge of felony malicious mischief.
totally justified, get permission or deal with the penalty. You are all assuming that these guys were totally respectful to the officer as well? Probably a bit left out that you don’t know. All those drift sessions in the winter i have taken part in were all fun, cops sometimes saw us, and sometimes they were super cool but we were always respectful… You gotta pay to play.
:picard:we had a technician who was test driving a camaro ss forever ago and was caught doing a burnout on transit road by the guy who dropped it off to get it serviced
I guess it could happen anywhere but that’s why I don’t trust a lot of shops/dealerships. You only have to worry if you drive anything remotely sporty/fast I guess though.
he only worked there for a few days apparently and we bought the customer new tires. the manager who hired doesn’t work for us anymore either… friggin idiots
Not sure how well that reckless driving charge is going to hold up in a parking lot. I’m pretty sure most state vehicle and traffic laws only apply on public roads.
I’m sure his reckless charge will easily get dropped. That law states that you must be endangering the lives of others. Kinda hard to do in a vacant parking lot, right?
That is a very grey section of law. If it is “public property” laws still govern it somehow. As in stop signs in a mall parking lot. We used to own a bar and had a few demo cars for a few years. The one year my cousin did a huge burn out with the demo car on our privately owned lot. The cop couldn’t give him an unsafe start, but he could have given him a noise ordinance ticket. Cop was pretty cool though after we gave him a beer.
Does anyone know the real law on this matter?
What if I buy 250 acres and pave my own race course. I should be able to have my 8 year old son go 150mph if I damn well feel like it correct?
not a gray area at all , the laws of the road apply to any and all parking lots, (in most states including NY) whether they are private or publically owned. Its deffinitly wreckless driving, and auto theft. In NY it wouldnt have been auto theft tho because that law doesnt exist here, it woulda been grand larceny or some bullshit.
Interesting, would your driveway be considered a parking lot? How about if you built your own circuit? Would it be a valid argument that since there were no other cars parked there, that it can’t be considered a parking lot? Would the lines to park make the lot a parking lot?
On a side note: I question everything and I think my sociology teacher hates me.
Uh huh… sure those laws apply to parking lots. That’s why WNY SCCA can have unregistered and uninspected cars running 60mph+ while spinning and roasting the tires in the middle of Williamsville at ECCN and the APD does nothing.
