What started as a routine check on a parked car quickly turned into a wild ordeal for local officers in Forest City. Police officers got called out to the local Walmart store after someone spotted two people who looked passed out inside a vehicle sitting in the parking lot.
When officers walked up to the vehicle, they found both people inside fast asleep. They knocked on the glass and managed to wake them up, but the driver did not plan on sticking around to talk to the law.
Instead of rolling down his window or stepping out, the driver put the car in gear and stomped on the gas pedal. He slammed directly into two police cruisers that were parked nearby to block him in.
The force of the sudden impact forced officers on the scene to dive out of the way so they would not get hit or pinned by the moving vehicle. Nobody got crushed, but the sudden crash threw the retail parking lot into total chaos.
The driver then tore out of the Walmart lot and took off down the road with officers right behind him. The chase tore through Rutherford County and pushed straight into Polk County as the suspect refused to pull over for blue lights.
The pursuit did not stop at the county lines either. The car kept hauling down the highway until it crossed out of North Carolina and headed straight over the border into South Carolina.
Police eventually caught up with the driver across the state line and identified him as Joshua Gardner, a resident of Gaffney, South Carolina. Forest City Police Chief Chris LeRoy said Gardner is facing a long list of heavy criminal charges back home once he gets extradited.
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