LA Car Thief Fills Up Mid-Pursuit.

The news anchors thought he was abandoning the car.

Seemed reasonable. A driver in a stolen vehicle, pursued through Los Angeles and followed by a news helicopter, had pulled into a gas station. Surely he was preparing to run.

He wasn’t dropping the vehicle.

He was filling it up. All the way up.

Then he got back in and drove off.

The most revealing part wasn’t that the thief stopped. It was that he apparently felt no urgency.

This is what happens when a city degrades its police department and treats public safety—its most basic responsibility—as just another item on the agenda. Eventually, car thieves become comfortable enough to fill the tank during a police pursuit.

Spencer Pratt is right: Los Angeles has gone full-on Grand Theft Auto.

But that’s unfair to GTA. When the police are chasing you in the game, you don’t have time to stop for gas.