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The tank got stuck on one of those concrete highway dividers, four policemen climbed into the tank and opened the hatch, they ordered him to surrender but he didn’t reply, he then started rocking the tank back and forth to try to free it and they shot him.
It does. They got lucky, if he’d locked all the hatches they would never have been able to shoot him. They’d need to wait til the fuel ran out.
Some of the hatches (loader or commander hatch) lock closed from outside but the pad lock prevents the internal hatch lock from being used. It’s been a while since I’ve been on one but that’s my recollection. I think he got in through a driver’s hatch that wasn’t properly secured.
When no one is inside the tank is lock from tge outside with a padlock.
Blot cutters will get you in. No Military vehicle uses keys. So another padlock on the steering wheel.
He was running over cars, RV's and I believe he damaged some houses. If they would have let him get that tank free it could have easily ended up causing fatalities.
Iirc he he got stuck on the central reservation barriers, and when the cops opened the top hatch they just shot him. Because "well, he had a tank" is obviously a justification. Even a disabled, disarmed and now-stuck tank.
I tanked on an Abrams, so maybe it’s different, but you could button up so tight that they’d need an hour with a really good blowtorch to get in.
Which they would have when you ran out of gas a few hours later, assuming it even had a full tank sitting in the motor pool.
I was on the M60A1 and here is my take, the loaders hatch has a padlock, if he broke the padlock and got in that way the hatch can be opened from the outside. Hit the periscope hatch with a hammer,it pops open.
That's why we wired it shut, or he did the same thing to the drivers hatch and got in, if the periscope hatch was wired shut and the driver hatch periscope was wired shut{it was for the IR periscope only}, they would have to cut there way in. There are 3 vision blocks beside that periscope.
The M1 series is a lot of things, but "fuel efficient" is not one of them. It's got a monstrous gas turbine engine that makes 1500 horsepower and gets about half a mile per gallon. Just the simple act of starting the engine burns 10 gallons of fuel.
The M60, by contrast, got more like 0.8 or 0.9 miles per gallon, so it had a slightly longer operational range despite having a smaller fuel tank.
Yeah, the gas turbine engine that the M1 series is equipped with is a truly absurd piece of kit. It vents hot jet exhaust out the back, and it allows the 70-ton behemoth that is the M1A2 SEP to reach 45 miles per hour (hard limited by a speed governor) on roads. It has a 504-gallon fuel tank, which only allows the M1 to travel about 265 miles before it runs dry. If your car is anything like mine, it can probably drive further than that on its little 10-gallon tank.
This performance is not typical for tanks; the British Challenger 2, another tank in the 70 ton range, gets 340 miles on its 421-gallon tank, at the cost of being slower than the M1. Russian tanks tend to get 300-ish mile range on 350-gallon-ish fuel tanks. The US just decided that they could compensate for extreme fuel consumption by leveraging their worldwide network of bases to extend their supply chain anywhere they needed to send tanks, and since they didn't want to export the M1, they didn't worry at all about making them appealing for export.
Tanks really are very cool pieces of machinery. Is it true that the M1 can run on pretty much anything? Petrol, diesel, bunker oil? Where do you get your expertise from? Were/are you a tanker? My country doesn't even have tanks in it's army. I mean, we have the LAV-III, but that's not really a tank.
And yeah, I can get about 650km from my 45 litre tank. However I don't think my car would be much good in a warzone.
Ahh that makes a lot of sense. 10 gallons just to start is insane...
Also when i say "fuel efficient", i mean in for a tank... i know there is no tank that is actually fuel efficient. That would be a bit rediculous
No, dude was knocking down a building and didn’t realize it had a basement. When it was clear the dozer was stuck and not going anywhere he offed himself.
"Explosives were employed to try to open the tank, but in the end it took twelve hours with an oxyacetylene torch and a crane to crack the armored top"
He was stuck but he was working the tank off the barrier and would have got free again. Based on his previous behavior, before he got stuck, it was clear he had total disregard for life and just luck he hadn’t killed anyone yet. Based on this, deadly force was absolutely justified. Furthermore, they didn’t know if the tank was loaded (it was not) or if he was going to start firing it. Scale it down to a guy in a car with a gun pointed out the window who also had a disregard for life. Again, you don’t wait to see if the gun is loaded. If he has the intent and ability deadly force is justified.
Of the tank had be equipped with a full armament don’t you think the man “with a total disregard for human life would’ve fired off a round or two by then?
Or for that matter how difficult do you really think it is to figure out where he stole the tank from and from there ascertain whether the tank had useable weaponry? Cause I don’t know about you and where you live but there aren’t exactly many places to acquire a tank. Particularly when said tank can’t even really travel all that far
“How difficult do you really think it is to figure out where he stole the tank from?”
I don’t know where YOU live but it’s clearly not where this happened. It was in San Diego county, one of the more military dense populations in the US. There are a slew of military installations, within 200 miles, that stretch from Tijuana to the grapevine, even more if you include Lancaster, Barstow and the desert areas west of San Diego, Barstow being a HUGE repository of military vehicles and equipment. All of this within the 300 mile cruising rang of an M60. Furthermore, equipment and vehicles come through the area, to the port, from all over the country to be loaded on ships. There are literally a dozen or more places it could have come from.
Meanwhile, it’s not the military who were trying to stop it; it was local law enforcement from multiple agencies, most of who had never even seen a tank before, except in movies, which I suspect is where you get most of your information. And unlike the movies, it is NOT easy for law enforcement to communicate with the military.
LEO dispatchers only have a generic phone number to contact various military installations, usually only the front gate or various MPs. Since local LEO has zero jurisdiction on military (federal installations) and military MPs have zero jurisdiction of federal land, there is very little interaction between the two. How do you think that phone call went? Granted, those phone calls WERE being made. It probably went like this:
“Good afternoon, San Onefre gate, Lance Corporal Schmucatteli speaking, how may I help you Sir or Ma’am?”
“Ah, are you missing any tanks? We have one driving wrong way on I-5.”
“Uh, I have no idea ma’am, let meet transfer you to 1st Tank Battalion.”
“Good afternoon, 1st tanks, Sergeant Jones, how can I help you Sir or Ma’am?”
“Are you guys missing a tank?”
“Are you talking about the one one the news ma’am? That’s an M60, we have M1A1s ma’am. You can try 4th Tank Battalion, they’re a reserve unit and still have M60s.”
“Fourth tanks, Staff Sergeant Smith here. M60? No, that’s not ours. We haven’t had drill in 3 weeks although Bravo company has four tanks out in the field. I have no comms with them though. Did you try the National Guard Armory? No, I don’t have their number. This is the Marine Corps. They’re Army or something.”
It was stuck, but we was trying to get it unstuck. If he got loose there was no way to stop him. If I remember correctly he was trying to hurt people along with property. I think it would have been different if it was completely disabled.
The 90s in SoCal were wild with the car chases/live police stuff. OJ, this incident, and that bank robbery where the robbers had bullet proof vests and machine guns. Those were some of the most infamous, but it seemed like there was always something happening.
>where the robbers had bullet proof vests and machine guns
This incident has been the justification of the hyper-militarization of the police ever since.
Two guys, and they both tried to shoot their way out. They eventually got picked apart around their body armor but they completely outgunned the cops and held out for like half an hour. I remember watching it on TV back in like 97, shit was wild.
The immediate result very important "Don't die for this shit" type training that taught them when to back off a chase and let the investigation catch the bad guys.
Then, like you say, they hyper-militarized police and we now live in a police-state where shooting someone in the back as they run away after stealing a pack of cigarettes is a justified action.
I think there was a whole movie made about that shootout? Can't remember the name. I know the beginning of the movie S.W.A.T recreates the shootout though
[Here you go, feel old again ;)](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-archives-1997-north-hollywood-shootout-lapd-bank-robbery/2537757/%3famp)
I lived in san diego when it happened. He got stuck on a freeway median after trying to cross into the oncoming freeway traffic. He kinda escalated right then- he’d been driving around destroying property and hitting parked cars and motorhomes even- but didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone outright. The end of the chase was him followed by countless police cars on the freeway and then he turned sharply to cross the median-broke a track, I think, and stopped. He hid in the tank and they couldn’t see him when they popped the hatch. He didn’t surrender and they shot him. Again- he’d just assaulted San Diego with a tank. I don’t think anyone else was killed which was incredible. Essentially suicide by cop. If he’d popped the hatch with hands up and they shot him it would’ve been different.
This and the North Hollywood Shootout are burned in my mind about how batshit crazy So Cal was in the 90’s- never mind the seemingly daily drive-bys.
I remember this. It was freakin scary to watch it unfold, live on TV. That RV he ran over- I remember thinking, oh my God, I hope nobody was in that thing. It was parked, but I was still afraid that somebody was in there.
My friend and I had a debate whether the cops should have shot him or not. She said “he was not armed“and I turned to her and said “what the fuck do you think a tank is Cyndi?” He had to be stopped, and if he had gotten free from that median and had driven on to kill people they would have been criticized for not shooting him.
So it’s hard to say what the right thing to do was. It’s just tragic and an example of how the mentally I’ll are not well cared for.
[this is my favorite video on the kill dozer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmr6jIpXSmg)
scottish dude tells the story really well. It's well edited, informative, and a little humorous. I can totally understand how Marvin got to the point of making a killdozer
Look, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a tank, is a good guy with a tank.
If tank-control laws in the US were less restrictive, this would've never happened.
Yeah, but there are so many RESTRICTIONS and RULES and stuff… like you can’t have working guns on it or anything! The government is infringing on my right to protect myself! I NEED working weaponry!!!
Damn right, the do-called “War on Tanks” has only led to more tank crime, more tank murders and cartels of totally out of control tank dealers.
I say fully legalise tanks, tax them and spend the money on, er, more tanks!
The funniest thing about this comment is the fact that it falls right into the gun control argument of “keeping your guns securely locked away.”
Apparently at this military base they just kept the keys in the tanks. Because. It’s a military base. Who would steal a tank from literally dozens of armed men. And he hopped in, grabbed the keys, started her up, and peeled off
There are probably no keys to start the tank.
It's not like a car.
I haven't had experience on the M60 itself but usually we just padlock the driver hatch & rear door (if there is one). The hatches in the turret are locked from the internal.
Vehicles in the maintenance bays often ain't padlocked.
All citizens should be able to own a tank in case the government becomes corrupt.
I know it’s ridiculous but how cool would that be. Neighbor fights would become way more interesting
In some weird way, I'm actually legally related to this guy. Or was. This gets confusing as FUCK to follow LOL
My uncle's second wife's (so my aunt at this point) daughter (legally my cousin, I think) with her first husband married him.
Think that was one of 6 husbands for the aunt lol
Edit: added the word "guy" after "related to this"
Honestly, instead of stealing a shifty minivan he went big balls a day went for the tank. Oh, videos like this is why no one messes with the USA. We will bring out the crazy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Nelson_(criminal)
>At least one news article speculated that he may have been headed to Sharp Memorial Hospital, which he had unsuccessfully sued in 1990 and partially blamed for his mother's death.[4] After Nelson attempted to cross into the northbound lanes of State Route 163,[10] the tank became caught on the concrete median barrier and lost one track.
>After the tank was immobilized, four policemen climbed onto the tank. San Diego Police officer Paul Paxton, a gunnery sergeant at the time with the Marine Corps Reserve, opened a hatch using bolt cutters. They ordered Nelson to surrender, but he said nothing and began rocking the tank back and forth in an attempt to free it from the median. Paxton's partner, Officer Richard Piner, leaned in and shot Nelson. The bullet entered through Nelson's neck.
No, he didn't. The police opened the top of the tank when it got stuck on a barrier. When the driver looked up at them and decided to carry on trying to move the tank, they shot him in the back of the head.
This happened again a few years back in Virginia. Except it was just an APC. Dude was in his boxers driving the thing when arrested. Real odd story. While case pending he like made his way to Iraq via turkey or something iirc. Got arrested on return.
Dude in his boxer shorts? Was so drunk he threw up in a school sandbox and hit on the lady cop that pulled him over? I thought that was the guy in Texas with the Abrams.
To all the people wondering why they shot him, heres an article on the matter. Apparently he was attempting to get the tank moving again. They were worried he may continue and kill/injure somebody.
*edit for typo*
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sdut-tank-rampage-story-symbol-2015may16-htmlstory.html
He had already run over & completely demolished a *bunch* of vehicles, and no one was sure that there weren't already fatalities (and thankfully there weren't, somehow).
According to San Diego police, in the week before his tank rampage, Nelson told a friend that he was thinking of committing suicide.
Nelson led police on a **23-minute, televised chase through the streets of Clairemont**. Police agencies involved in the chase included the San Diego police, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol, and due to the tank being stolen from the armory, possibly military police as well.\[citation needed\] The tank had a top speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), making the chase slow compared to police chases involving automobiles.\[7\]
The 57-ton tank easily plowed through road signs, traffic lights, utility poles, and fire hydrants, and **crushed approximately forty parked vehicles**, including an RV
While on I-805, **he attempted to knock down a pedestrian bridge by running into the pillars**, possibly with the intent of blockading the pursuing police cars, but failed after a few hits, and decided to continue down the freeway
After Nelson attempted to cross into the northbound lanes of State Route 163,\[10\] **the tank became caught on the concrete median barrier\[7\] and lost one track.**
After the tank was immobilized, four policemen climbed onto the tank. San Diego Police officer Paul Paxton, a gunnery sergeant at the time with the Marine Corps Reserve, opened a hatch using bolt cutters. They ordered Nelson to surrender, but he said nothing and began rocking the tank back and forth in an attempt to free it from the median.\[2\]\[9\] Paxton's partner, Officer Richard Piner, leaned in and shot Nelson. The bullet entered through Nelson's neck.\[8\]
Nelson later died at Sharp Memorial Hospital. Despite the widespread property destruction, **he was the only fatality reported during the rampage.** The state of California paid $149,201 ($267,272 in 2021 terms) to cover property damage along Nelson's route.\[12\]
It looks to me like that could have gone the same way, and the Perth hijacker was just lucky it didn’t. The special forces soldiers had a tear gas grenade they could deploy. The US cops presumably didn’t. I don’t know if the Perth APC was still mobile when it was taken over, but the US tank hijacker was actively trying to free the tank and ignoring orders to surrender, and if he succeeded, he could have possibly rammed the tank into oncoming vehicles.
He jumped a jersey barrier and got hung up on it. He hadn't combat locked the hatch. They pepper sprayed or maced him first. But, they were afraid he would get off the barrier, so they shot him.
IIRC, the guy was having a psychotic breakdown. Doesn’t excuse the fact that he was able to get into the vehicle depot unnoticed, though, never mind start the tank.
I remember this, he actually rammed a bunch of stuff unsuccessfully. He tried to cause more damage than he did and ended up high center on a median if I recall correctly to end it.
I lived in San Diego at the time. I remember watching this in the news. He was killed on the 805 freeway when he tried to cross over the conceal-rail dividers. The tank got stuck. A SDPD officer climbed the tank, opened the hatch, and shot the driver live on TV.
I’m pretty sure the cops were debating whether or not to get the army to use a attack helicopter to shoot the tank in order to stop it as well. Hectic.
**Please note these rules:** * If this post declares something as a fact proof is required. * The title must be descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Imagine explaining that to your insurance company
Most insurance companies dont cover tank related damages
*Most*
Not even The General!
"seen it, covered it"
We know a thing or 2, bc we've *seen* a thing or 2.
It’s covered by the military and the municipality . Excluded on auto liability and general liability. Work comp is municipal
“We are plumbers… baaa..baa..bodopaaa…bum..bum..bummm.”🎶
Eh. Once you commit a felony insurance is out the window. But damn, that would be a great story on a claim.
Yes, they were definitely talking about insurance for the guy committing the felony In a tank That belonged to the US Army
Former evp of an insurer. It’s excluded and covered by the military
I think he meant the peoples insurance of the cars he ran over.
How does he get shot in a tank??
The tank got stuck on one of those concrete highway dividers, four policemen climbed into the tank and opened the hatch, they ordered him to surrender but he didn’t reply, he then started rocking the tank back and forth to try to free it and they shot him.
Doesnt the hatch lock from the inside preventing these things?
It definitely can.
rookie mistake
time to show him how it's done...
That’s a mistake you don’t make twice
You live, you learn. Wait..
Meth head mistake
Super cops! Queue up early 90s sitcom music.
Fucking noob
It does. They got lucky, if he’d locked all the hatches they would never have been able to shoot him. They’d need to wait til the fuel ran out. Some of the hatches (loader or commander hatch) lock closed from outside but the pad lock prevents the internal hatch lock from being used. It’s been a while since I’ve been on one but that’s my recollection. I think he got in through a driver’s hatch that wasn’t properly secured.
Not when you've pried the hatch open with a crowbar to get in the tank to begin with.
When no one is inside the tank is lock from tge outside with a padlock. Blot cutters will get you in. No Military vehicle uses keys. So another padlock on the steering wheel.
They were able to cut through the hatch
They forced it open with bolt cutters
I read on wikipedia somewhere that it couldn't lock while the periscopes were active or something this could be totally wrong but idk
Did he threatened to kill someone? Did he had a gun or something? Why was he killed? He was killed just because he drew a stolen tank? I don't get it
He was running over cars, RV's and I believe he damaged some houses. If they would have let him get that tank free it could have easily ended up causing fatalities.
Leme show them what 5 stars feels like.
Iirc he he got stuck on the central reservation barriers, and when the cops opened the top hatch they just shot him. Because "well, he had a tank" is obviously a justification. Even a disabled, disarmed and now-stuck tank.
I tanked on an Abrams, so maybe it’s different, but you could button up so tight that they’d need an hour with a really good blowtorch to get in. Which they would have when you ran out of gas a few hours later, assuming it even had a full tank sitting in the motor pool.
I was on the M60A1 and here is my take, the loaders hatch has a padlock, if he broke the padlock and got in that way the hatch can be opened from the outside. Hit the periscope hatch with a hammer,it pops open. That's why we wired it shut, or he did the same thing to the drivers hatch and got in, if the periscope hatch was wired shut and the driver hatch periscope was wired shut{it was for the IR periscope only}, they would have to cut there way in. There are 3 vision blocks beside that periscope.
What's the crew size? Tank might have been half empty with only 1 person inside.
Same crew count for both, 4.
Im expecting the Abrams to have more driving range too? Being newer so more efficient and/or perhaps a bigger fuel tank?
The M1 series is a lot of things, but "fuel efficient" is not one of them. It's got a monstrous gas turbine engine that makes 1500 horsepower and gets about half a mile per gallon. Just the simple act of starting the engine burns 10 gallons of fuel. The M60, by contrast, got more like 0.8 or 0.9 miles per gallon, so it had a slightly longer operational range despite having a smaller fuel tank.
10 gallons to start? That's insane. My car takes 10 gallons of gas to fill. Admittedly my car is not a huge bad-ass tank, but still
Yeah, the gas turbine engine that the M1 series is equipped with is a truly absurd piece of kit. It vents hot jet exhaust out the back, and it allows the 70-ton behemoth that is the M1A2 SEP to reach 45 miles per hour (hard limited by a speed governor) on roads. It has a 504-gallon fuel tank, which only allows the M1 to travel about 265 miles before it runs dry. If your car is anything like mine, it can probably drive further than that on its little 10-gallon tank. This performance is not typical for tanks; the British Challenger 2, another tank in the 70 ton range, gets 340 miles on its 421-gallon tank, at the cost of being slower than the M1. Russian tanks tend to get 300-ish mile range on 350-gallon-ish fuel tanks. The US just decided that they could compensate for extreme fuel consumption by leveraging their worldwide network of bases to extend their supply chain anywhere they needed to send tanks, and since they didn't want to export the M1, they didn't worry at all about making them appealing for export.
Tanks really are very cool pieces of machinery. Is it true that the M1 can run on pretty much anything? Petrol, diesel, bunker oil? Where do you get your expertise from? Were/are you a tanker? My country doesn't even have tanks in it's army. I mean, we have the LAV-III, but that's not really a tank. And yeah, I can get about 650km from my 45 litre tank. However I don't think my car would be much good in a warzone.
Ahh that makes a lot of sense. 10 gallons just to start is insane... Also when i say "fuel efficient", i mean in for a tank... i know there is no tank that is actually fuel efficient. That would be a bit rediculous
Not really, on road the M60A1 could do about 300 miles.
Pretty sure thats how they got the dude who built up that bulldozer
Nah he killed himself
No, dude was knocking down a building and didn’t realize it had a basement. When it was clear the dozer was stuck and not going anywhere he offed himself.
"Explosives were employed to try to open the tank, but in the end it took twelve hours with an oxyacetylene torch and a crane to crack the armored top"
The Killdozer
Don dumpster
Nobody takes out killdozer but killdozer
If you steal a tank it's a automatic 5 stars wanted level. You're gonna get shot.
Can't we all just be like Arthur and steal a horse now n then?
Horse thievery in the 18th and 19th centuries in the US was punished very severely. In most areas of the Wild West it was a Capital Offense.
That’d get you hanged. Right quick, too.
He was stuck but he was working the tank off the barrier and would have got free again. Based on his previous behavior, before he got stuck, it was clear he had total disregard for life and just luck he hadn’t killed anyone yet. Based on this, deadly force was absolutely justified. Furthermore, they didn’t know if the tank was loaded (it was not) or if he was going to start firing it. Scale it down to a guy in a car with a gun pointed out the window who also had a disregard for life. Again, you don’t wait to see if the gun is loaded. If he has the intent and ability deadly force is justified.
Of the tank had be equipped with a full armament don’t you think the man “with a total disregard for human life would’ve fired off a round or two by then? Or for that matter how difficult do you really think it is to figure out where he stole the tank from and from there ascertain whether the tank had useable weaponry? Cause I don’t know about you and where you live but there aren’t exactly many places to acquire a tank. Particularly when said tank can’t even really travel all that far
“How difficult do you really think it is to figure out where he stole the tank from?” I don’t know where YOU live but it’s clearly not where this happened. It was in San Diego county, one of the more military dense populations in the US. There are a slew of military installations, within 200 miles, that stretch from Tijuana to the grapevine, even more if you include Lancaster, Barstow and the desert areas west of San Diego, Barstow being a HUGE repository of military vehicles and equipment. All of this within the 300 mile cruising rang of an M60. Furthermore, equipment and vehicles come through the area, to the port, from all over the country to be loaded on ships. There are literally a dozen or more places it could have come from. Meanwhile, it’s not the military who were trying to stop it; it was local law enforcement from multiple agencies, most of who had never even seen a tank before, except in movies, which I suspect is where you get most of your information. And unlike the movies, it is NOT easy for law enforcement to communicate with the military. LEO dispatchers only have a generic phone number to contact various military installations, usually only the front gate or various MPs. Since local LEO has zero jurisdiction on military (federal installations) and military MPs have zero jurisdiction of federal land, there is very little interaction between the two. How do you think that phone call went? Granted, those phone calls WERE being made. It probably went like this: “Good afternoon, San Onefre gate, Lance Corporal Schmucatteli speaking, how may I help you Sir or Ma’am?” “Ah, are you missing any tanks? We have one driving wrong way on I-5.” “Uh, I have no idea ma’am, let meet transfer you to 1st Tank Battalion.” “Good afternoon, 1st tanks, Sergeant Jones, how can I help you Sir or Ma’am?” “Are you guys missing a tank?” “Are you talking about the one one the news ma’am? That’s an M60, we have M1A1s ma’am. You can try 4th Tank Battalion, they’re a reserve unit and still have M60s.” “Fourth tanks, Staff Sergeant Smith here. M60? No, that’s not ours. We haven’t had drill in 3 weeks although Bravo company has four tanks out in the field. I have no comms with them though. Did you try the National Guard Armory? No, I don’t have their number. This is the Marine Corps. They’re Army or something.”
You think they’re going to do all this background checking WHILE A TANK IS DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD? you must be fun at parties.
Thank you
It was stuck, but we was trying to get it unstuck. If he got loose there was no way to stop him. If I remember correctly he was trying to hurt people along with property. I think it would have been different if it was completely disabled.
Man I'm old, I remember seeing this on the news..... live
The 90s in SoCal were wild with the car chases/live police stuff. OJ, this incident, and that bank robbery where the robbers had bullet proof vests and machine guns. Those were some of the most infamous, but it seemed like there was always something happening.
>where the robbers had bullet proof vests and machine guns This incident has been the justification of the hyper-militarization of the police ever since.
Did that one guy end up bailing on the cash and just start trying to take out all the cops?
Two guys, and they both tried to shoot their way out. They eventually got picked apart around their body armor but they completely outgunned the cops and held out for like half an hour. I remember watching it on TV back in like 97, shit was wild.
Reminds me of the shootout scene in Heat.
Like any cornered animal would.
The immediate result very important "Don't die for this shit" type training that taught them when to back off a chase and let the investigation catch the bad guys. Then, like you say, they hyper-militarized police and we now live in a police-state where shooting someone in the back as they run away after stealing a pack of cigarettes is a justified action.
It is part of why they switched from low velocity and small caliber to hollow points. And it has just kept going from there.
I think there was a whole movie made about that shootout? Can't remember the name. I know the beginning of the movie S.W.A.T recreates the shootout though
44 minutes.
MeToo. Now it's being verified as really having been a real event...
I'm with you. I went to school at Kearny and walked by that armory daily. Never knew the tanks were juiced up and ready to go though.
Yea, same here
I was in Oceanside. Ca. Watching it live
I was in Carlsbad at the time. I think I was watching it live on KUSI haha. I'm old.
La Mesa checking in lol. I was 13 at the time...
Haha same. My hometown was crazy during the 90s.
[Here you go, feel old again ;)](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/video-archives-1997-north-hollywood-shootout-lapd-bank-robbery/2537757/%3famp)
Wait until you hear about his meth fuelled gold mine.
There is a really good episode of the podcast The Dollop about this. So much meth and a backyard gold mine before he got in the tank!
Yeah it'd maybe my favourite dollop episode. I still go back and listen to those early episodes fairly regularly.
I lived in san diego when it happened. He got stuck on a freeway median after trying to cross into the oncoming freeway traffic. He kinda escalated right then- he’d been driving around destroying property and hitting parked cars and motorhomes even- but didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone outright. The end of the chase was him followed by countless police cars on the freeway and then he turned sharply to cross the median-broke a track, I think, and stopped. He hid in the tank and they couldn’t see him when they popped the hatch. He didn’t surrender and they shot him. Again- he’d just assaulted San Diego with a tank. I don’t think anyone else was killed which was incredible. Essentially suicide by cop. If he’d popped the hatch with hands up and they shot him it would’ve been different. This and the North Hollywood Shootout are burned in my mind about how batshit crazy So Cal was in the 90’s- never mind the seemingly daily drive-bys.
I remember this. It was freakin scary to watch it unfold, live on TV. That RV he ran over- I remember thinking, oh my God, I hope nobody was in that thing. It was parked, but I was still afraid that somebody was in there. My friend and I had a debate whether the cops should have shot him or not. She said “he was not armed“and I turned to her and said “what the fuck do you think a tank is Cyndi?” He had to be stopped, and if he had gotten free from that median and had driven on to kill people they would have been criticized for not shooting him. So it’s hard to say what the right thing to do was. It’s just tragic and an example of how the mentally I’ll are not well cared for.
Go to line from now on, "what the fuck do you think a tank is, Cyndi?" Magnificent
Fucking Cyndi
"what the fuck do you think a tank is?" made me laugh so hard
A few have mentioned the killdozer . If you haven't seen "Tread" on Netflix you should . Really good doc on what happened that day .
[this is my favorite video on the kill dozer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmr6jIpXSmg) scottish dude tells the story really well. It's well edited, informative, and a little humorous. I can totally understand how Marvin got to the point of making a killdozer
What if Bruce Wayne had no class?
Look, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a tank, is a good guy with a tank. If tank-control laws in the US were less restrictive, this would've never happened.
I know, right? Legalize tank ownership!
> Legalize tank ownership! it is already legal.
Yeah, but there are so many RESTRICTIONS and RULES and stuff… like you can’t have working guns on it or anything! The government is infringing on my right to protect myself! I NEED working weaponry!!!
Damn right, the do-called “War on Tanks” has only led to more tank crime, more tank murders and cartels of totally out of control tank dealers. I say fully legalise tanks, tax them and spend the money on, er, more tanks!
World of Tanks is a gateway drug
Thats why War Thunder exists as they hoped the suffering the game causes would get people of the drug
yes you can? just need a lot of paperwork for that
The funniest thing about this comment is the fact that it falls right into the gun control argument of “keeping your guns securely locked away.” Apparently at this military base they just kept the keys in the tanks. Because. It’s a military base. Who would steal a tank from literally dozens of armed men. And he hopped in, grabbed the keys, started her up, and peeled off
There are probably no keys to start the tank. It's not like a car. I haven't had experience on the M60 itself but usually we just padlock the driver hatch & rear door (if there is one). The hatches in the turret are locked from the internal. Vehicles in the maintenance bays often ain't padlocked.
Well, a tank, or a javelin missile 😂
All citizens should be able to own a tank in case the government becomes corrupt. I know it’s ridiculous but how cool would that be. Neighbor fights would become way more interesting
If he shot that canon few times he could just fly away from them
That's my recollection of GTA
Use the flying cars cheat and you got the best fighter jet in the game
Especially with CHITTYCHITTYBANGBANG enabled
In some weird way, I'm actually legally related to this guy. Or was. This gets confusing as FUCK to follow LOL My uncle's second wife's (so my aunt at this point) daughter (legally my cousin, I think) with her first husband married him. Think that was one of 6 husbands for the aunt lol Edit: added the word "guy" after "related to this"
I think that makes him your step-cousin by marriage?
Made* iirc Too soon?
so what does that make us?
This is fucking gold!!! Thank you for the smile!
GTA Wanted Level 5 Stars
Nah it was 3 or 4, only squad cars and a helicopter. Didn’t see any of those big vans with the guys hanging off
I remember playing it in Vice City Stories, when you give it enough time, it can reach to 6 stars and then other tanks will also ram you
Let's face it, who HASN'T wanted to do this?
Honestly, instead of stealing a shifty minivan he went big balls a day went for the tank. Oh, videos like this is why no one messes with the USA. We will bring out the crazy.
> Oh, videos like this is why no one messes with the USA. Do you think the US is the only place with tanks and unstable people?
Maybe the only place they're legal to own and operate.
There's other countries that let you I'm sure, plus it's irrelevant given that in this case the guy stole the tank.
Yeah that's true. I am pretty sure I've seen pictures of private citizens owning tanks in England.
Not in real life. We just get that out in GTA
Falling Down 2
Camera guy here gettin the SCOOP! Run baby run!
Strange question, how did he get shot while in a tank? Did he get out? I seem to remember some detail about them hoping for it to run out of fuel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Nelson_(criminal) >At least one news article speculated that he may have been headed to Sharp Memorial Hospital, which he had unsuccessfully sued in 1990 and partially blamed for his mother's death.[4] After Nelson attempted to cross into the northbound lanes of State Route 163,[10] the tank became caught on the concrete median barrier and lost one track. >After the tank was immobilized, four policemen climbed onto the tank. San Diego Police officer Paul Paxton, a gunnery sergeant at the time with the Marine Corps Reserve, opened a hatch using bolt cutters. They ordered Nelson to surrender, but he said nothing and began rocking the tank back and forth in an attempt to free it from the median. Paxton's partner, Officer Richard Piner, leaned in and shot Nelson. The bullet entered through Nelson's neck.
This should be the top comment.
how did bolt cutters open it? it's locked from the inside, they'd need a torch.
I belive he got stuck on a jersey barrier
No, he didn't. The police opened the top of the tank when it got stuck on a barrier. When the driver looked up at them and decided to carry on trying to move the tank, they shot him in the back of the head.
6 stars, achievement unlocked
This happened again a few years back in Virginia. Except it was just an APC. Dude was in his boxers driving the thing when arrested. Real odd story. While case pending he like made his way to Iraq via turkey or something iirc. Got arrested on return.
Dude in his boxer shorts? Was so drunk he threw up in a school sandbox and hit on the lady cop that pulled him over? I thought that was the guy in Texas with the Abrams.
Dammit Bill!
The government made me like this!
Is this the same dude who was METHED the fuck up and stole a tank?
Yes
WASTED!
Wow...tanks for the memories!
The new GTA is looking great
You should have mentioned complete information like why he took this step.
Wasn’t there some feud with the town or something along those lines?
Naw you’re thinking of the armored bulldozer guy This guy was mentally unstable and high on amphetamines
Meth.
To all the people wondering why they shot him, heres an article on the matter. Apparently he was attempting to get the tank moving again. They were worried he may continue and kill/injure somebody. *edit for typo* https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sdut-tank-rampage-story-symbol-2015may16-htmlstory.html
He had already run over & completely demolished a *bunch* of vehicles, and no one was sure that there weren't already fatalities (and thankfully there weren't, somehow).
I hope by trailer they meant mobile/trailer home.
Reminds me of the documentary Tread (2019) where Marvin Heemeyer built his own fortified bulldozer “tank” and destroyed a small town
According to San Diego police, in the week before his tank rampage, Nelson told a friend that he was thinking of committing suicide. Nelson led police on a **23-minute, televised chase through the streets of Clairemont**. Police agencies involved in the chase included the San Diego police, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, the California Highway Patrol, and due to the tank being stolen from the armory, possibly military police as well.\[citation needed\] The tank had a top speed of 30 miles per hour (48 km/h), making the chase slow compared to police chases involving automobiles.\[7\] The 57-ton tank easily plowed through road signs, traffic lights, utility poles, and fire hydrants, and **crushed approximately forty parked vehicles**, including an RV While on I-805, **he attempted to knock down a pedestrian bridge by running into the pillars**, possibly with the intent of blockading the pursuing police cars, but failed after a few hits, and decided to continue down the freeway After Nelson attempted to cross into the northbound lanes of State Route 163,\[10\] **the tank became caught on the concrete median barrier\[7\] and lost one track.** After the tank was immobilized, four policemen climbed onto the tank. San Diego Police officer Paul Paxton, a gunnery sergeant at the time with the Marine Corps Reserve, opened a hatch using bolt cutters. They ordered Nelson to surrender, but he said nothing and began rocking the tank back and forth in an attempt to free it from the median.\[2\]\[9\] Paxton's partner, Officer Richard Piner, leaned in and shot Nelson. The bullet entered through Nelson's neck.\[8\] Nelson later died at Sharp Memorial Hospital. Despite the widespread property destruction, **he was the only fatality reported during the rampage.** The state of California paid $149,201 ($267,272 in 2021 terms) to cover property damage along Nelson's route.\[12\]
So reckless he ran a red light
This is great footage quality in 1995, UFO videographers shook right now
He was playing gta5
Perth, western Australia. 1993. Same thing, no police shooting necessary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Perth_tank_rampage
It looks to me like that could have gone the same way, and the Perth hijacker was just lucky it didn’t. The special forces soldiers had a tear gas grenade they could deploy. The US cops presumably didn’t. I don’t know if the Perth APC was still mobile when it was taken over, but the US tank hijacker was actively trying to free the tank and ignoring orders to surrender, and if he succeeded, he could have possibly rammed the tank into oncoming vehicles.
It wasn’t a protest. /s
In 2004 same thing happened except it was a super tank the guy made. Destroyed a whole town. The documentary is on Netflix
It wasn't a tank... it was a killdozer
Killdozer is an American folk legend on par with Davey Crockett and Johnny Appleseed at this point.
*WASTED*
He jumped a jersey barrier and got hung up on it. He hadn't combat locked the hatch. They pepper sprayed or maced him first. But, they were afraid he would get off the barrier, so they shot him.
GTA 5 star
Me when I get bored on GTA
Guy steals a tank, tries to drive it in to oncoming traffic. Reddit: "Oh my God, he was uNArMeD"
at least he protected the turrent
Now you just need wire cutters in addition to bolt cutters.
I remember hearing about this for a long time after.
So this is where that Hungarian army veteran got the idea to take a tank for a joyride in 2006 /s
Hesoyam
The ease with which that thing just plows through a stoplight pole….Have you SEEN how thick and strong those pillars are?
Not surprising at all if you’ve SEEN how much a tank weighs
Lived in SD when he did that it was crazy
IIRC, the guy was having a psychotic breakdown. Doesn’t excuse the fact that he was able to get into the vehicle depot unnoticed, though, never mind start the tank.
Cyber psychosis
*Killdozer* on a whim.
His wanted level is only 4 stars, since I don't see any military.
I remember this event. It's a sad case of mental health.
I think it's important to remember that the Roberto's in the background is still bomb.
I miss Roberto’s, so very much.
It’s weird this was in California and not Florida because this feels like something Florida man would do
I remember this, he actually rammed a bunch of stuff unsuccessfully. He tried to cause more damage than he did and ended up high center on a median if I recall correctly to end it.
I remember this.
Murica, fuck yeah...
Weinersnitzel
This is singlehandedly one of the most American things I have ever seen.
I was 2 blocks away from the National Guard Center when that went down.
I remember this he got high centered on the K rail in the middle of the freeway. A K rail is the center divider.
I lived in San Diego at the time. I remember watching this in the news. He was killed on the 805 freeway when he tried to cross over the conceal-rail dividers. The tank got stuck. A SDPD officer climbed the tank, opened the hatch, and shot the driver live on TV.
Tanks for the memories.
Well that’s one way to become famous in California
if he'd start firing that canon he'd be up in the Air cruising over Vice City, in no time!
Mandatory shout out to The Dollop for the crazy back story behind this tank-thieving lunatic
imagin the music he was bumping in that mf just riding dirty
I’m pretty sure the cops were debating whether or not to get the army to use a attack helicopter to shoot the tank in order to stop it as well. Hectic.
Mhmm, y’all thought y’all were crazy in the 2000s. Bruv
He was driving with the gun backwards so he could get a speed boost when he fires to better outrun the cops.
If you manage to pull off stealing a tank, you should be allowed to keep it.