California Man VS Motorcycle Cop, Bizarre Case
Crooked cops are scary, hard to pin down and dangerous but one California man caught one — literally — flying into his back seat.
Brian Hitchcock’s story started 18 months ago when a California motorcycle cop rear ended him seconds after leaving a stoplight. The officer flew headfirst into the back seat of Hitchcock’s convertible BMW 328i. A witness saw what happened and snapped the photo above which quickly went viral.
Officer Anthony Parente didn’t waste any time in sending out an “officer down” call which brought swarms of emergency vehicles to his aid. Unfortunately for Hitchcock, that also painted him in a less-than-favorable light to the arriving officers who spent the next couple hours questioning him.
After researching the human cannonball that landed in his back seat, Hitchcock learned that Parente had a record of similar incidents. Furthermore, he seemed to have pursued the civilians’ insurance companies and to have claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability pay as a result of his exploits.
As the court date assigned to the incident approached, the charges against Hitchcock which included assault and reckless driving, were dropped.
“My insurance company rejected Parente’s claim,” Hitchcock said to the L.A. Times. “I told them I was prepared to go to court to prove that I was telling the truth, so they didn’t pay him. He finally targeted the wrong guy.”
Now, Hitchcock is preparing to sue both Officer Parente and the Hermosa Beach Police Department.
[Source: L.A. Times]
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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