Compared to video games like GTA, breaking the law in real life also has real consequences. A 19-year-old from America had to learn this through personal experience and questionable decisions.
How did the chase begin? On February 20, 2025, a young man from Utah was reportedly driving without a license plate when a police officer attempted to stop him. However, the suspect had no intention of stopping and instead decided to accelerate and engage in a chase with the officer.
In fact, the 19-year-old managed to escape, but about a month later, on March 23, 2025, authorities received an email containing videos of the chase: self-recorded footage from the armed driver along with the words: “I’m in GTA, Bro!”
Here you can see the trailer for GTA 6, a world where the 19-year-old might prefer to be:
Suspect Provides His Own Evidence
What did the driver do? During the chase with the police officer, the driver ran a red light and nearly rammed another vehicle at 95 MPH (approximately 150 km/h). The officer ultimately had to abandon the pursuit for safety reasons.
When police reviewed the evidence videos from the email a month after the chase, the officers were surprised that the perpetrator not only recorded them himself but also published them on social media.
What do the videos show? The news site KSL from Utah reports the following about the footage:
- In the first video, the defendant films himself while driving, accelerating, and mentioning the police officers who are pursuing him.
- In the second video, the 19-year-old films himself again and says this time: “I’m in GTA, Bro!” While doing so, he holds a black handgun in front of the camera.
- The third video shows the defendant filming the police in the rearview mirror.
The 19-year-old was ultimately charged with ignoring the officer’s stop signal, resisting arrest, as well as reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and using a phone while driving.
Time and again, people film themselves in cars and display improper driving behavior. Particularly among influencers, fans do not find this funny at all. This was also the case for the German streamer MontanaBlack in the summer of 2024 when he filmed on the highway while criticizing the driving behavior of others: Twitch: MontanaBlack’s driving behavior criticized – “Reported clip to the driver’s license authority”
