CHESTERFIELD, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com)—
It was caught on tape and the suspect even posted the offenses online himself. Videos show a Lamborghini pushing 150 mph in the slow lane on Highway 40. A luxury auto employee was behind the wheel and another dealership employee video taped it all.
On the videos you can hear both employees brag about dangerous speeds.They said things like, "Let's do it" and "That was 150" and "We could've actually overstepped it." Then they put the proof all over YouTube. The man behind the wheel and the cameraman both work at the luxury car dealer, St. Louis Motorsports.
The dealer sits right off Chesterfield Airport Road, right in the thick of one of the busiest shopping areas in the St. Louis area -- Chesterfield Valley. Some of the videos show them test driving on Airport road. In one video, they're in the slow lane passing people. The guy holding the camera jokes about another driver's reaction when he said, "That Jaguar was thinking about coming over. Then he thought better.
"Chesterfield Police took immediate action when officers found out.Lt. Steve Lewis told us, "At those kinds of speeds, a close call... could be in a minute, in a second, in a split second." Lt. Lewis said they arrested the driver within hours of gathering the evidence. He said, "We've never had an issue with them like this before. Hopefully we'll never have an issue like this again, but one of the most important things is, if you're going to buy a high performance car such as that, the only way you can legally test it that way is on a racetrack."
We went to the dealer for answers. Owner Jim Mills came out to his showroom to talk.[Chris Hayes asked] "About those YouTube videos. What were you guys thinking? [Mills responded] It's not what we were thinking. It's an issue, we don't condone the actions, it's a rogue employee. He's been reprimanded and that's all I have to say. [Hayes] but he had a video camera. You had to know he was doing this. [Mills] We were filming the cars just to kind of give people a flavor of the vehicles and an understanding about what it's like to ride one of these cars. We weren't aware he was speeding in the cars and like I said before, he's been reprimanded and that's it. [Hayes] But dozens of videos online? You're telling me you didn't know this guy was doing this? [Mills] No, we have dozens of videos online but in all those videos he wasn't speeding."
Mills said it won't happen again. He's pulling the lawbreaking videos and he wants people to know -- you don't need to break the law to get a rush from a high performance vehicle.
Chesterfield Police's Lt. Lewis said the videos are just as good as catching someone in the act. He added that they have a year to prosecute under the statute of limitations. Police won't name the driver, but they're charging "careless and reckless driving." It's a misdemeanor in Chesterfield City Court.
