Wow! Maybe that was the same one I witnessed in 1980. A couple of thieves from Roxbury looted a house in - I don't know - Somerville or somewhere'sville, stole the car at the house and went on a wild chase through several different towns - each of which picked up jurisdiction.
The whole line of 20 squad cars from several towns came screaming and wailing down Beacon street and ended up in a crash right in front of my frat house. The stolen car had run a red light (not that anyone pays attention to red lights in Boston) and smashed into a crossing car. The next several squad cars then smashed into it and each other - bam - bam - bam. Cops jumped out the windows of their cruisers and quickly nailed the driver. The other guy escaped on foot and ran into one of the BU dorms across the street.
Boston PD surrounded the neighborhood and used a bullhorn to tell the escaped robber that he was surrounded. I came out of my frat house to see what was going on. Apparently, the robber saw from the second floor across the street that the inner foyer door that I'd come out of had caught on the welcome mat and was stuck open. He came barreling across the street at full speed, straight for me - waving a big long screwdriver in his hand, closely followed by three cops with guns pointed in the air and all of them looking at their shoes. The robber was wearing sneakers - the cops were wearing slick-soled and slippery dress shoes. Go figure.
I stepped aside at the last minute - thinking that I'd get a big phillips-head through the heart if I blocked him. They all ran right past me and right into the foyer of our frat - where I thought he'd be collared against the locked door. But, as mentioned before - it was ajar. The robber ran in - closed the door behind him - waved his screwdriver at some frat mates and made a beeline for the stairway to the back parking lot. A frat bro ran to the front door to let the cops in - who immediately ran straight into the soft drink storage closet. They had to be pulled out and redirected to the back staircase.
Meanwhile, the robber had exited our back door then broke through the back door of the adjacent frat and was making his way up their back staircase to their front door. From my later perspective, it was an absolute keystone comedy, since after what seemed like only seconds after they had all bounded past me - like a Bugs Bunny cartoon they came bounding out of the front door of the neighboring frat house - thief still leading the way on sneaks - cops still focused on their shoes.
The thief then had open road to press his advantage on foot - and was making use of it. He was halfway down Beacon street headed towards Mass Ave and widening his lead when one of the cops yelled to a big grizzly adams-looking guy, who was in the thiefs path, to stop him. Grizzly stuck out one big arm and clotheslined him - then started to wail on him. The cops finally got to the scene and proceeded to wail on poor ol'good citizen Grizzly, since he was having too much fun going to town on the robber.
The cops finally cuffed the thief and led him down the middle of the street like conquering heroes - to the cheers of all of us frat guys and the other out-of-town cops milling around in the street. All of the frat houses brought out cases of soft drinks - and it was a moment straight out of a Coca-Cola commercial. It turned into an impromptu social pow-wow for all these neighboring police departments. The only thing missing was a barbecue.
This is one of the funniest, best-written posts I’ve seen in a long time! Another FRameable Post.