Thomas Grobbel

Shortly before 1:00 a.m. on July 21, 2009, Thomas Grobbel pulled into a Macdonalds drive-through restaurant in Detroit, a city in the north-central United States. Thomas had been drinking a lot and as he drove up to the service window, he almost hit the building with his white pick-up. Tony Garrisi, a Macdonalds employee who was working at the window, was frightened. As soon as she got a good look at Thomas, she realized that he was very drunk because his eyes were glassy and he was having trouble keeping them open. She gave him the food he wanted and then told him she didn’t think he should drive any more. Thomas admitted he was drunk, but he said he had to keep going because he had to get home. When she realized that Thomas was not going to listen to her, Tony phoned the police. Then Thomas suddenly drove away from the restaurant at high speed. He drove over a concrete barrier at the edge of the parking lot as he left and then he sped along a highway toward his suburban home. About three minutes after leaving the restaurant, Thomas almost hit a car and the woman who was driving it also called the police. Ten minutes later, just after 2:00 a.m., Thomas was getting close to home and he turned off the highway. On the exit ramp, still going at full speed, he smashed into a van. One of the four men in the van was killed, and two others were very seriously injured. Despite the accident, Thomas kept driving for a short distance, but he soon abandoned his truck and began running. The police were close behind him, and when they found the abandoned vehicle they continued chasing Thomas on foot, using a tracking dog. Thomas managed to avoid them for several hours by hiding in bushes and backyards, but around 6:00 am, he was spotted by a helicopter and was arrested.