81-Year-Old Grandma on Coffee Run Leads Cops on Low-Speed Chase

Nancy Strader just wanted a damn cup of coffee. The 81-year-old Denton, Texas woman left her home shortly after 5 AM on Thursday morning, determined to grab some caffeine and breakfast, preferably in that order. But after a couple of snitches called the police to report that Strader was driving the wrong way on a busy street and may have driven in circles (ugh, big deal), she led the cops on a chase that, um, was not terribly exciting.

Although Strader did pull over the first time officers from the Denton Police Department tried to stop her, she then basically thought to herself, Eff this, and pulled back into traffic—going in the proper direction this time—and made cops follow her at death-defying speeds of, like, 25 mph.

"During their conversation of trying to get her to exit the vehicle or open the door, she starts to pull forward," Officer Shane Kizer told WFAA. "They warn her not to drive away. She stops briefly and then she takes off."

Damn right she does. After another ten minutes, she stopped again, and officers quickly slashed her tires. "Open the door. OPEN. THE. DOOR," an officer yells in the dashcam footage. Strader seems to ask 'Why?," and the cop says, "Because the police are telling you to."

That wasn't good enough for Strader, so the officers smashed her window. After pulling her out of the vehicle, the officers repeatedly ask her why she won't answer their questions. "Because I hate to answer stupid people," she says. Strader was taken to jail and charged with evading arrest. She spent 14 long hours in a cell before her son paid her $1,000 bail and took her home. (The officers noted that Strader was not under the influence of alcohol, illegal substances, or prescription medications, but tbh, we tend to drive in circles before we've had our coffee too.)

"She did get annoyed several times, but they were very careful to still show her courtesy throughout the whole traffic stop and the initial arrest," Kizer said—although 'very careful' seems to be subjective; after the officers break her window, it sounds like Strader says "That hurt my eyes," and she tells the officers that they're hurting her as they pull her out of the car. (In case you've forgotten at this point, she's 81 years old.)

"I just was out riding around," Strader said, after her long ordeal. "I thought, I'm going to go have me some coffee or a sandwich or something because I hadn't eaten all day. But I never got it."

MUNCHIES has reached out to the Denton Police Department for comment but has not yet received a response.