Car Thief Climbs Crane, Strips Naked at Port of Los Angeles in WILD Police Chase Caught on Camera

The 23-year-old suspect is seen sitting on a crane at the port of Los Angeles.

This is crazy…

A bizarre incident at the Port of Los Angeles Wednesday night as a high-speed police chase ended with the suspect entering the port where he climbed a giant ship-to-shore crane and stripping naked before plunging to his death.

The wild scene began just after 3 p.m. when local law enforcement began chasing a 23-year-old man through Los Angeles county in an SUV he allegedly stole from a dealership earlier in the day.

The suspect eventually entered a dock at the port of Los Angeles, where he continued to drive erratically through stacks of containers:

There’s currently a high speed chase through the Port of Los Angeles https://t.co/F0HvDkaPWB pic.twitter.com/N5WV5yYEYD

— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) August 17, 2017

The suspect then ditched the car and climbed a crane at the West Basin Shipping Terminal, passing the crane operator as he climbed onto the arm of the 17-story crane:

This chase is pretty nuts. The guy is now walking around on top of one of those huge cranes they use to unload container ships. pic.twitter.com/qUYyDsyQGL

— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) August 17, 2017

News helicopters captured the man on camera pacing around, waving at police, dancing and doing “calisthenics”, as the media described it. After a few hours on the crane the man even took off his clothes.

Watch Live: A man perched on a Port of LA crane is taunting police after evading them in a chase https://t.co/ysmbtKKRub pic.twitter.com/JIJOopr8V2

— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) August 17, 2017

Tragically, after more than three hours on the crane, the man either fell or jumped to his death, landing on the containership docked at the terminal.

The Port of Los Angeles said Thursday it was investigating the incident, as well as the security breach at the container terminal. 

Here’s some video (of the chase and standoff) from local KLTA 5 News. The video is long but you can skip through it: 

https://www.facebook.com/ktla5/videos/10155838813529614/