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Vigilantes Chase and Catch Female Drunk Driver after Massive Hit-and-Run

The last thing you want to see in the morning is a few dents and scratches on your parked car and no note left on the windshield. Yup, nobody wants to be on the receiving end of a hit-and-run.
Hit-and-run 1 photo
Photo: YouTube screenshots
That's probably why people appear to be so sensitive about it even if it's happening to a complete stranger. We're capable of surprisingly high levels of empathy when it comes to seeing another driver not take responsibility for what they've done, and we're also willing to do things we normally wouldn't.

But perhaps it was the severity of the crash that urged these young men to chase the hit-and-run driver for several blocks, as well as the fact she was clearly inebriated. We don't really get to see the aftermath of her reckless driving, but we can hear one of the guys say there was debris on the road far away from where the crash happened, which suggests some speed was involved.

And then we the camera guy moves over to her vehicle's right side and we catch a glimpse of its front end. Not only is it battered, but the wheel sits perpendicular on the SUV's longitudinal axle, completely severed and unable to provide any steering.

To the Infiniti's credit, she is still able to pull off and gain a significant lead as the ad-hoc neighborhood watch is scrambling to catch a ride. Finding her, however, wasn't very difficult since all they had to do was follow the smoke and the trail of asphalt scratches.

They catch up with her on a few occasions and try to make her step out of the car, but she's obviously not complying. They might have had the best intentions, but you really don't expect a woman to leave the safety of her vehicle in the middle of the night and step out where a few unknown men were shouting at her.

This does beg the question whether harassing her was actually the best idea. Perhaps calling the police (which they did) and just following from afar to keep tabs on her location would have been a safer approach. I guess we'll never know.

The clip ends with the police finding the SUV in a carpark and the officer asking the guy to playback his recording. They say the driver (identified as Lucy Jane Arrom, of Tustin) got arrested moments later after the officers found her hiding in a bar nearby. She probably must have been regretting her outfit choice at that point - some jeans and a black top wouldn't have been as obvious as her flowery blue dress.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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