Advertisement

South Korean cop does his best ‘John McClane’ impression corralling drug suspect

There's a reason people love Die Hard movies.

While police officers put themselves in the line of danger each day, the car-jumping, plane-hopping, bullet-deflecting antics of John McClane rarely occur in real life.

Of course, that was before South Korea's Kim Hyun-Cheol decided one unlucky bad guy was not going to get away under his watch.

As CNN reports, the 34-year-old traffic cop from Korea's Busan region clung on to the windshield of a suspect's traffic-dodging car for 25 minutes before he was able to reel him into a line of waiting police cars.

The heart-stopping action began when the suspect made an illegal U-turn at a busy downtown intersection. According to Korea Joongang Daily, the driver put his pedal to the metal and screeched off before Kim could finish writing up his ticket.

[ More Daily Buzz: Ottawa sinkhole opens up, swallows car, driver ]

Kim told the paper that the man's suspicious actions set off his Spidey sense that something was wrong.

"He looked as if he was afraid of something," he said. "He only opened his window an inch."

As Kim held on to the car for dear life, his feet dangling over the windshield, the driver tried to fling him off the car for 15 km by weaving through traffic. As he hugged the plastic roof, the officer believed this would be the end of his earthly narrative.

"For the first 10 minutes, I thought I was going to die. But I hung on…because I really wanted to arrest this guy," he said.

It also didn't hurt that Kim holds numerous martial arts certificates (as well as an honorary certificate in badassery.)

Video — which has now gone viral in South Korea — shows the Kim-carrying car grinding to a halt after getting blocked by traffic and officers pursuing the suspect in a dramatic subway foot chase.

Police later learned that Jeong was also wanted for drug-related charges. Now they're just one on a long list that includes resisting arrest, reckless driving and deadly assault on a police officer.

Despite bruises on his chest and legs, Kim is expected to make a full recovery before he steps into his new role as assistant inspector.

He may not recover as quickly from the wrath of his wife and mother, who reportedly burst into tears when he told them what he'd done and suggested he may want to consider his personal safety before another promotion.