I saw the craziest thing this morning...

I can only guess what I actually saw -- and yes, the whole incident may have an innocent explanation. But my smell sensor is working overtime on this, and what I witnessed just doesn't fit into the "innocent" catagory.

For those of you from Atlanta, many of the roadways I'm about to mention will be familiar to you. And perhaps I wasn't the only ATSer to witness this today.

I was just merging onto I-85 South from Steve Reynolds Blvd. around 9:30 this morning when I almost immediately noticed a white and blue "Federal Police Homeland Security" SUV cruising in the far left lane. This caught my attention because I never have seen one before, let alone knew that Homeland Security had its own police force with vehicles. While on the tail end of the morning rush hour, with traffic easing up, the SUV was still traveling very precariously for the conditions, so it wasn't doing much to "blend in," if you know what I mean.

Which is why I spotted the other interesting aspect: A black Crown Victoria or Grand Marquis with very tinted windows, tags from Hall County and two obvious communication aerials attached to the trunk, hauling a$# to keep a tail on the SUV. I suspect the car was an unmarked, but given the local tag -- particularly from a more rural county north of the city -- I am guessing it could be either local law enforcement or GBI. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows.

What was perplexing were these two cars were gaming each other, playing cat-and-mouse. The SUV -- still going an estimated 70 or so -- would deftly change lanes and within say five or 10 seconds, the unmarked would follow. For those visualizing this, yes, I was speeding to keep up.

For now, we can just maybe chalk this up to two law enforcement officers heading to base somewhere and feeling the need to push the envelope of federal highway regulations. I had that conclusion until they reached what we Atlantans popularly call Spaghetti Junction.

The SUV, maneuvered into the third lane to the right, which would position him to exit from I-85 and onto I-285 heading east. The unmarked immediately followed. And then the eye-opening shocker happened.
The SUV literally waited for the very last second, cut across a lined island, and merged into the second to right lane which then placed him on the exit ramp of I-285 heading West. But the SUV timed this move to cut the unmarked off from following by very nearly skimming a median wall.

I was stunned. A Homeland Security Police truck ditched what I guess to be an unmarked police car tail! What the hell???

My path led me to I-285 west, so I was following the SUV. Unfortunately, by the time it merged onto 285, the driver really started to haul it, going 85 or 90 in the far left. I lost sight of it somewhere near Ashford Dunwoody Road. As for the unmarked, I notice it brake after the SUV swerved over to another exit ramp, kinda hesitate for a moment, and then continued on to the 285 east exit.

I really don't know what to make of it, let alone where a post like this should go. I have one theory: Perhaps the unmarked was an officer in training, assigned to do his best to tail the SUV? Do Federal officers do that kind of training on public roadways?

Anyone else have any ideas?

Why is this in the 9/11 forums again?

Just wondering, cause I dont think it has anything to do with 9/11.

wow that is quite interesting, being as that I too have never seen a fed. homeland sec. cop, so other than the blue and white what other colors did it have if any?
also did both of them have the normal blue/white gov. tags?
do you remember the tag numbers on either car?

Originally posted by agent violet
wow that is quite interesting, being as that I too have never seen a fed. homeland sec. cop, so other than the blue and white what other colors did it have if any?
also did both of them have the normal blue/white gov. tags?
do you remember the tag numbers on either car?

You know, I now sympathize with UFO witnesses. No, I don't remember tag numbers, and I slapped my forehead when I got to work for not thinking of that sooner. I could have cleared up some of the mystery. That being said, just eh SUV was blue and white. I'm trawling Google now to see if I can find a picture of the vehicle I saw. It wasn't inconspicuous, I can tell you that. Mostly white with blue stripes running across its sides and the words "Homeland Security" and "Police" on it, also in blue.

As for the tailing vehicle, it was black and completely unmarked. The plates were nongovernmental -- but I hear now that undercover law enforcement don't need gov't tags as its a giveaway.

Actually, this is the exact paint scheme of the SUV. This is a car, granted, but the same paint and text was on the SUV.

hey yea no prob. but i just had to ask abt the tags.

wow so i guess that yea they do make them plus apparently they arrest people with them, since the back of the car in that pic appears to be outfitted somewhat for that.

what i find most odd about the whole thing that the cop(!) was being chased by another cop(!)?, i wonder why...

was there only one person in each car?

Originally posted by agent violet
hey yea no prob. but i just had to ask abt the tags.

wow so i guess that yea they do make them plus apparently they arrest people with them, since the back of the car in that pic appears to be outfitted somewhat for that.

what i find most odd about the whole thing that the cop(!) was being chased by another cop(!)?, i wonder why...

was there only one person in each car?

There was only one person I could see in the unmarked. As for the SUV, I couldn't really tell as it was a bit ahead of me.

Yes, why cops chase cops is beyond me. As I guessed earlier, perhaps some sort of tailing-a-suspect training?

well i used to work for kamino in riverdale and its off that exit. its a international logistics warehouse with a lot of more of the same kind around it.


something might have happened at one of those places

Was this the design of the decor on the SUV?



Edit to add: Sorry, didn't notice the link earlier.

[edit on 8/8/07/08 by junglejake]

Cool story.

As you say, it kinda teaches one something about one's observational skills under pressure, eh?

Amazing how hard it is to remember a license plate, only three letters and three numbers, while one's only other occupation at the time is riding a bicycle.

Yes, that's the same pic I linked earlier as well.

Very advanced driver training? You know they would have to practice in all types of scenarios, vehicles etc.

Just a thought ~ did all this look like professional driving? or was it a bit more i don't know - improvised?

I imagine very top level drivers have to regularly test each other so they can keep their "ticket to ride!" (sorry)

I don't know how it works over the pond but here in the UK the police do the later stages of their advanced driver training on the public roads. Normally have a Volvo T5 chasing an Vauxhall Omega. I have seen this on a couple of occasions. Maybe they do the same over there but the quick cut onto the exit ramp sounds dangerous and i don't think it would be a sensible thing to do on an open road!

Maybe it was for real but for what reason... i dunno

OP is this place close to you. I suspect it was a training event, I see these cars all the time travleling the DC beltway and around Dullas international airport where i live. the link to the DHS training site as well;

www.fletc.gov...

Contact Information
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
1131 Chapel Crossing Rd.
Glynco, GA 31524
TH 396 - OSL
Office Hours: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm EST. Mon - Fri
Phone: 1-800-74FLETC
Fax: 912-267-2894
Email: [email protected]



[edit on 8-8-2007 by geemony]

Thanks everyone.

This was my first thought, that I was witnessing a training exercize of some sort. I was just shocked that it would be conducted on a major highway during the morning commute, but I guess law enforcement needs real world scenarios to run.

Originally posted by geemony
OP is this place close to you. I suspect it was a training event,

That's interesting geemony, but glynco is nowhere near Atlanta. In fact, its practically in Savannah.

I suppose there's a chance that the two vehicles were on a tailing exercize heading back there (as to a southernly direction). But like another poster observed, doing a cut just feet from a median seems awfully dangerous on a public road.

I'm not implying anything nefarious or sinister here, I'm just curious what exactly I witnessed.

[edit on 8/8/2007 by behindthescenes]

I know where I live because of the particular buildings in the area (Y-12, K-25 and such) I have seen both types of vehicles you have described. They usually patrol near the buildings and when there’s an anti-war protest outside Y-12, they usually line up 3 SUV’s and 2 Crown Vic’s to block and increase security.

An interesting note, last week I was followed by one of the Crown Vic’s on my way to work. When I drive to work I do have to drive by Y-12, a tinted and dark Crown Vic got behind me as I was going up the street passing by Y-12 and followed me till it realized I was not going to Y-12 but continuing on. When it decided to turn I slowed down to see where it would go, it basically did a U-turn and went inside Y-12. Weird, but cool.

I'll step out on a proverbial (silly) limb here.

I lived in Georgia for a year and a half, and in fact I learned to drive there. Although my most-frequented highway was the I-20 (due to its proximity), I did occasionally have cause to traverse the 75 and the 85.

What fascinated me about many Georgia drivers was their ability to drive diagonally at extremely high speeds. I remember driving one night in the "fast lane" of a highway; up ahead, an exit was rapidly approaching. I observed several cars (from my lane) crossing the four-lane highway (*at the last minute) to get off at the exit, while other cars simultaneously executed dangerous maneuvers to switch from the right to the left lanes. While I've also lived in New York, I'm currently confident that Georgia has comparably terrible driving.

What you may have witnessed may be nothing more than that: standard (bad) driving Or at least, I would jocularly chalk it up to that.

Then again, there is certainly a chance that you may have spotted a small part of a large(r) incident. You drive daily, I'm sure; if you spotted this incident out of the countless others taking place around you, there could have been something going on.

By the by, I cannot recall having seen a "homeland security" vehicle before. The coolest police vehicle I ever saw was one of the new Dodge vipers (like thi s) and it wasn't doing anything exciting.

Isn't it kind of reckless for the Feds to train like this? Couldn't civilians be hurt or killed if something goes wrong?

ghostryder21, nice sig

I'd recognize Robert's writing anywhere

Kudos to a fellow fan.