A Miami police officer found himself in handcuffs earlier this month after leading the Florida Highway Patrol on a chase at speeds over 120 miles per hour.
Dashcam video caught Miami police Officer Fausto Lopez, 35, in his cruiser on the Florida Turnpike blowing by trooper D.J. Watts like she was standing still. After a seven-minute chase, Watts, with gun drawn, yelled for Lopez to put his hands out the window.
"Oh yeah, I'm serious!" she shouted. Moments later, the shocked Miami officer was standing on the side of a busy Florida highway wearing handcuffs.
"Oh my God, I cannot believe this!" Lopez said once he was secured in the back of the trooper's cruiser. "I cannot believe this at all."
"I didn't know you were stopping me, officer. ... I never saw you," he claimed.
"How do you not see a car with blue lights in the dark?" Watts asked.
Lopez explained that he was on his way to an off-duty job at a private school when Watts spotted him dangerously weaving in and out of traffic.
"It's a private school, but it's -- it's some high-end people there," he said. "I had to get there by 7 o'clock and I didn't think I was going to make it."
Lopez was eventually released after being charged with a second-degree misdemeanor for dangerous driving, according to The Miami Herald.
The Miami Police Department has launched a probe of the Oct. 11 incident.
"No one should drive 120 miles per hour," Mayor Tomas Regalado admitted.
Watch this video from ABC News, broadcast Oct. 29, 2011.
(H/T: Gawker)
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