Police Officer Appears to Run Car Over His Own Spike Strip in Viral Video

A brief video clip that purports to show a police officer running over his own spike strip is going viral on TikTok.

Within two days of being posted by user @megantoivonen, the video has already been viewed more than 683,000 times and garnered more than 69,000 likes. In the caption, Toivonen labeled the incident one of the "perks of living in an 'active area.'" It reportedly took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, according to Snopes.

In the video, a black SUV is driven down a residential street, red and blue lights flashing, as someone standing by a screened window in a house or an apartment starts to film. "Whoa," the videographer or another person present shouts. "Get the phone, get the camera, get the camera."

The SUV then reverses and appears to run over a spike strip that had fallen out of the open trunk along with an orange traffic cone earlier, according to Snopes; the cone can be seen tumbling off the curb and into the road at one point. Someone can be heard bursting into laughter as the nature of the mistake becomes clear.

Shortly after running over the spike strip, the car stops before inching forward again and coming to a halt. Then, an officer exits and walks out of the picture, head bowed.

In an interview with Snopes, Megan Toivonen's husband, Dasean Toivonen, told the outlet that the officer driving the SUV was preparing for a car chase when the incident occurred, though he said that he did not know "what department the car belonged to either as it appeared to be undercover."

However, the City of Minneapolis Police Department denied owning the vehicle. In addition, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department claimed that the officer's uniform was different in color than those of sheriff's office employees, according to Snopes. Hennepin County includes Minneapolis.

However, the spokesperson did later put forth a theory.

"We have looked into it further and our best guess is that it's probably a squad from a suburban law enforcement agency that was in the city on a pursuit/assist. We know it's not from our agency, MPD, or Metro Transit PD," the spokesperson said.

Regardless of the car's institutional affiliation, TikTokers reveled in the irony of the incident.

"the pure level of self-ownage is beautiful," one commenter wrote.

Others pointed out that there's a silver lining to every cloud.

"'So boss, good news is the spike strips still work...'," another joked.

Toivonen told Snopes that a tow truck eventually arrived to haul the disabled SUV away.