Man Dressed as Clown Leads Police on 35-Mile Chase While Standing Up through Sunroof

Drivers and pedestrians all over the Los Angeles area Saturday were witness to a strange sight as police pursued a man in a mask and clown wig for approximately 35 miles — at least part of that distance spent standing up through his car's sunroof.

According to multiple news reports, the chase began in Orange County, California, near where I-405 near California Route 22. The California Highway Patrol had been alerted of the vehicle by drivers who noticed a man hanging out of the sunroof of a black sedan and acting recklessly, notes NBC Los Angeles.

The pursuit, which started around 2:50 p.m., local time, then continued west and north on the 405 for nearly an hour. The car eventually exited the highway at Lincoln Blvd. and drove north toward Marina Del Rey and Venice Beach. By this point, the driver was apparently popping in and out through the sunroof, sometimes sitting with his feet up on the roof of the car while the car inched forward.

In video posted by KTLA, the man appears to taunt pursuing officers, facing backward as he stands up through the sunroof and making a shrugging gesture at the cars behind him.

As the slow-motion chase neared Venice Beach, the man in the wig parked and exited the car and then took off running west toward the ocean. The OC Register reports that when police actually caught up to and arrested the suspect, he had stopped to help playfully bury a beachgoer in the sand.

You can see in the Fox 11 video below that the man — still wearing the wig — eventually lay down on the sand and was taken into custody by police, but not until after having drawn a crowd of dozens of curious onlookers.

Police have not yet said what the man's motive might have been in leading officers on this lengthy, fruitless pursuit. There was also a woman in the car at the time of the chase. Authorities have not said what, if any, relation she had to the man they arrested, but she did not appear to be facing any charges for her time spent in the passenger seat.