Watch the ingenious way this driver briefly escaped a police pursuit under the nose of choppers

Televised police chases are pretty common in Los Angeles.

But a driver escaping from a pursuit is much more rare. And it appeared to happen Friday — at least for a while.

Authorities — and TV news helicopters — were tracking a man in a car stolen in Lakewood. The man drove recklessly for nearly an hour, hitting an armored car and another vehicle. At one point, he looked up and waved at TV choppers broadcasting the chase. He ended up in the hills above Whittier, along Turnbull Canyon Road.

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There, he slowed his vehicle in a tree-covered section of the road. As the Honda Accord kept moving, he climbed almost imperceptibly out of the driver’s window. The vehicle coasted to a stop farther down the road.

It appeared the man might have gotten away. But minutes later, the man, who was wearing a Tony Romo Dallas Cowboys football jersey, was taken into custody, his mad scramble for freedom stopped short.

Authorities have not identified the man or said whether anyone was hurt during his two accidents.

Some chase observers gave the man points for ingenuity because his escape was difficult to see live. His slick move was visible only in slow-motion replays — appearing as a shadow across the driver’s door of the white vehicle.

L.A. County sheriff’s deputies flooded the area around Blue Sky and Hollytree roads with weapons drawn, searching for the man until he was found.

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UPDATES:

10:10 a.m. This post was updated with more details about chase.

4:31 p.m.: This post was updated with details about the driver’s arrest.

This story was first published at 4:13 p.m.