Remembering my past. Posted Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 1:34:03 PM     Alexandria Bay, NY 1000 Islands  Comments  Unique Views 2107/Total Views 2115

You know, every once in a while people ask me to tell the story about the High Speed Pursuit I was involved in over 8 years ago. The time when 15 units were in pursuit and a helicopter was on it's way from Fort Drum. It's been a long time since this little incident happened and I recently found the newspaper clipping so I figured I would share it with you guys. The title the Watertown Times came up with was quite interesting, don't ya think. See below.



I might as well tell the story one last time as it seems every year I forget a few more details.

I was working for GiSCO at the time as a web designer and a System's Analyst. (BTW: I had nothing to do with the internet dial up part of the company that everyone hated)  Anyway, My Boss "Paul Barton" asked me to design the 1st Web Based Real Estate MLS System in New York State. As time went on things got hectic. I was working 90 hours a week and often getting no sleep, I was flying to Atlanta on 2 hours notice or attending trade shows in Orlando to sell the system, or just plain staying up all night working on code. A lot was expected of me and there were a lot of things promised to me that made me work ridiculously hard to get the system completed. I was tired and stressed out and driving to Watertown everyday on Route 81 from Abay. Many times on my Motorcycle.

Anyway.. One day it was around 10 am and I came up on a Trooper in a Camero and he clocked me going 84 or so. I decided within half a second to run for it, dropped her down two gears and took off. Well, he chased after. Soon I came up on a lot of traffic and had to pass about 8 cars that were pretty close together. I slowed down enough to do it and then bolted off as fast as the bike would accelerate. You can slow down to 70 and speed up ridiculously fast on the bike I had. Anyway, the trooper couldn't get through all the traffic like I did and I basically lost him. As I was heading towards the Bradley Street exit there is a rest area on the right. Just my luck it was full of troopers weighing trucks which they hardly ever do. So all of them are staring at me as I fly by and of course some of them jump in their station wagon like cars and more of them call it in. Again, I lose them nearly instantly as they never even got out of the exit before I was long gone and am now coming up to the Bradley Street exit. I get off it at normal speed, and since I lost them I decide to just casually take Bradley street and disappear into the city. No such luck, just as I get about 1 quarter mile I see another trooper in my rear view way behind with lights flashing. It's not the Camero but a normal trooper car. I am thinking were the hell did he come from and it turns out he just happened to be coming the other way on 81 as I got off the exit. Before this point I considered the chase over and would have drove at normal speeds into work. I thought to myself I am in so much trouble already that I just have to keep on going and I did. I mean how could I give up now?? I went down Bradley pretty darn fast, losing that trooper quickly as well, then I get to the Traffic Lights where Bradley meets Main Street. I slowed down a lot to turn right. Thing is it was spring or fall "can't remember" and the road was all bubbled up, my brakes were glazed over from the chase, and my tires were near bald from being too old, No excuses though, I dumped it !! .... and slid the bike right through the intersection like a surfboard. I remember the lights just turned green for oncoming traffic and a big truck beeping the horn as I slid through. It was surreal to say the least. I picked up the bike nearly instantly and tried to start it. I didn't know my shifter was gone and more important all the oil had leaked out from the sliding around on the pavement. About 20-30 seconds later I hear tires squawk as 2 troopers pulled up. It was the camero car  and the other trooper from the exit. They got their hands on their holsters and they are yelling at me to bring the bike to the corner parking lot where there is a small store and garage. I do so, put the kick stand down, put my hands behind my back and face the troopers. To my surprise they are not interested in cuffing me at this point and ask me if I am ok. I had one scratch on my knee for the most part. The cops seemed a little freaked out and at 1st thought I had something to hide, as they said I was unusually calm, almost like I had 3rd degree shock or just didn't care what happened to me or something. Turns out that was the truth, at the time I didn't care. I didn't care about anything.

I treated the cops with complete respect, got cuffed and stuffed in the front seat of the camero and taken to a Judge. The trooper told the Judge I was well behaved, he took off my cuffs, the Judge took my license, and the trooper dropped me off at work.

In the end I got 4 tickets. (Wreckless Driving, Evasion of Police, 95 in a 65, 95 in a 30.) I would have gotten a lot more tickets but I was very nice to the cops and cooperative. I ended up with around 27 points on my license. I lost my license for 6 months or so and had to get a real good attorney "Gary Miles" and take a driver safely class from "Jimmy Marshall" .... Before this happened I had just leased a brand new Sebring ConvertIble that I ended up paying on and leaving in my yard the entire time. That sucked..

Not being able to drive and being sorta embarassed about what I did as far as work went I was going to resign from GiSCO. My boss said no way as he needed me and my good friend Randy Pierce who lived in Plesis and also worked at GiSCO gave me a ride every day. He really went out of his way to do that for me. I did not ask him to, he just volunteered. That is why to this day I support Randy by colocating my web server in his facility in Syracuse. It's the least I can do. I take care of my friends an my friends take care of me. It's an Abay thing!


I later found out some interesting things.

1.) Supposeley a guy robbed a bank in Albany or something the day before and got away on a motorcyle. All the trooper barracks got a notice about it so they we're fired up.

2.) Everyone says you can't out run the radio, but I sure as hell gave them a run for the money. The tow truck driver that took my bike later told me the Troopers told him if I didn't dump it I probably would have gotten away based on where I planned on heading and parking.

3.) A helicopter a Fort Drum was on it's way, but the chase ended before it took off.

4.) City units were called in but none were close enough to the area to get involved at the time.

5.) The troopers called Kawasaki to see if the Bike I had could really go as fast as they suspected it did. They were amazed how fast I lost them each time and though I modified it or something. It was just 600 cc Ninja Sportbike but it could go about 160 mph on the high end.

6.) Though I felt no pain at the time I did end with a bruise the size of a bowling ball on my thigh. I was as purple as could be for like 2 months and I couldnt walk well for a couple weeks. Must have been from when the bike went over and caught my thigh.

6.) A lof of people say I should have headed for Clayton and they may have been right. Thing is in my mind the chase was over at that point. Regardless, I may have very well killed myself trying to go down RT 12 fast enough to find a place to hide or a road to take away from the area. Or maybe I would have gotten away, who knows..

7.) The Camero Trooper was quite upset for a little while because as he tried to pass all those cars a truck pulled in front of him. He had to really slam on the breaks and ruined them. 

NOW OBVIOULSY IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING I AM LUCKY I DIDN'T GET HURT OR HURT SOMEONE ELSE.

I guess I had my chance to be in a big time police chase and run from the man and I took it. I ain't proud of it, but in another sense at least I had the balls to take that chance. I WILL NEVER EVER DO IT AGAIN... IT WAS FRIGIN STUPID !!!   BUT HEY IT'S A PART OF ME AND A PART OF MY PAST.

Since this happened 8 years ago I have not gotten any tickets from a police officer and I plan to keep it that way. My license is spotless. I am friends with all sorts of Law Enforcement and I support what they do.

I was a stressed out 24 year old that made a REAL BAD decision.

IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD A VIDEO OF THIS SHIT GOING DOWN !!! 

CAUSE YOU CAN BET YOUR SWEET ASS IT WOULD BE ON abaynews.com !!

UPDATE: I just found this picture of my bike at the time. A XZ600 E3 NINJA

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