19-year-old BMW driver did doughnuts around gas pumps as crowd watched, Florida cops say

Illegal street racing reached new levels of peril in Florida when a driver decided to perform dangerous stunts near the pumps at a gas station, according to state investigators.

Nothing exploded, but that didn’t stop the Florida Highway Patrol from arresting the 19-year-old driver and taking his car.

It happened around 11 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, at the Daybreak station in Cape Coral, about a 130-mile drive south from Tampa.

The driver is accused of using his BMW to perform “doughnuts near fuel pumps, pedestrians, and other cars,” Highway Patrol officials said in a news release.

“This incident was captured by security cameras and several onlookers with cell phone videos, which were later posted on various social media accounts,” officials said.

Troopers tracked the driver down and arrested him Sept. 12, near his home in Lehigh Acres, about a 25-mile drive northeast from Cape Coral, troopers said.

He is charged with reckless driving, racing as part of an illegal street/parking lot takeover and petit theft for the shoplifting of a bottle of tea, officials said.

“The 2015 BMW M2 has been impounded for the next 30 days,” the Highway Patrol said.

Performing doughnuts near gas pumps is considered dangerous because the continuous circular motion may cause “tires to heat up and emit smoke from friction,” experts say.

The stunt is a key part of illegal street takeovers, along with burnouts, drifting and wheelies, state officials say.

Cape Coral is in southwest Florida.

This story was originally published September 13, 2024 at 11:07 AM with the headline "19-year-old BMW driver did doughnuts around gas pumps as crowd watched, Florida cops say."