Two men accused of starting the new year off by drag racing in Alpharetta are facing charges for the dangerous act, police said.
As it turns out, they would have escaped punishment if they hadn’t raced past the same patrol officer twice on Westside Parkway, Alpharetta police spokesman Jason Muenzer told Channel 2 Action News.
“The worst mistake these guys made was they drag-raced right into a cop,” Muenzer said.
Hernan Gonzalez and Igor Bjelobrk were each driving cars “at a high rate of speed” with passengers inside, according to the police report.
After seeing the cars driving side-by-side heading north on Westside Parkway with engines revving, the officer followed the cars and let them turn onto Maxwell Road, the report states.
The officer wrote that he assumed the cars had turned around and left, but when he saw the same two cars racing again, he put on his lights and sirens to stop them.
“As the vehicles came closer, I observed that it was the same Nissan and Acura I was just following,” the officer wrote in the report.
Video obtained by Channel 2 shows the officer direct both cars into a nearby parking lot, where Gonzalez, 17, and Bjelobrk, 26, were placed in handcuffs.
“Couldn't take it as a warning when you drove by the first time, could you? You had to turn around and come back and race again, huh?” the officer said in the video.
The drivers were taken to jail on charges of racing on public streets and driving too fast for conditions. Their cars were both impounded, but the passengers were released with a warning.
“You need to pick a better friend that's not going to put your life in danger by street racing,” the officer said.
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