FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A subject has been taken into custody after leading over a dozen police cruisers on a chase in a Chevrolet Corvette on Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale.
The chase began shortly after 5 p.m., Wednesday.
Police said the Corvette was stolen from a home in Fort Lauderdale’s Victoria Park neighborhood.
After officers spotted the vehicle, they attempted to stop it. When the driver did not comply, they gave chase.
Police said the pursuit went through the neighborhood’s streets at low speed until the subject got on I-95 northbound at Sunrise Boulevard.
At one point, the driver of the stolen Corvette, later identified as 33-year-old Stephen Nitsch, came to a stop on the off-ramp of Atlantic Boulevard.
After stopping, police officers drew their weapons, but the driver took off again on Atlantic Boulevard.
“The sirens — it was out of nowhere. It was pretty crazy,” a witness said.
An unmarked police SUV was eventually able to perform a pit maneuver on the Corvette on the boulevard, causing it to spin out.
The driver then fled on foot, but he was taken into custody at a nearby restaurant, at 600 NW 3rd St. in Pompano Beach, as police converged on him from all sides.
“I just see a whole bunch of police just come and tackle him in front of the Snappers,” another witness said.
Cornisha Flanders, who works at the Snappers Fish & Chicken, said the man was so desperate to get away that he tried to jump inside the restaurant through the drive-thru window.
“From the side of my eye, I had seen it, and I had to double back and look again, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God,'” Flanders said. “I see him running, and it looked like he was gonna jump through the window, so I had to close the window.”
Nitsch was later put into an ambulance and transported after, authorities said, he felt sick and began to throw up.
He was taken to an area hospital as a precaution.
“The police force right here — I’ll tell you right now — very good. They were on top of it like that,” the first witness said.
Nitsch faces charges of auto theft, fleeing and eluding.
The damaged Corvette has since been towed from the scene.
The auto theft remains under investigation.
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