Crazy Reckless Driving Case in Beverly Hills Gets Weirder

Cars are owned by sheikh who allegedly falsely claimed diplomatic immunity
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 18, 2015 2:44 PM CDT

A case of reckless driving last weekend in Beverly Hills involved a $1.4 million Ferrari, false claims of diplomatic immunity, an alleged death threat, a Middle Eastern sheikh, and zero arrests. The whole thing started Sept. 12 when the swanky Los Angeles neighborhood was terrorized by a yellow Ferrari LaFerrari and white Porsche 911 GT3 speeding down streets, blowing through stop signs, and nearly hitting pedestrians, Yahoo reports. “The driving they’re involved in is atrocious,” Beverly Hills police told Jalopnik. “They’re putting everyone’s lives in danger driving like that.” Yahoo reports a video journalist claims he confronted one of the drivers, who said he had diplomatic immunity and could have the video journalist killed.

This week, police identified the owner of the cars as Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani—a member of the Qatar royal family and the owner of a drag-racing team—who does not, in fact, have diplomatic immunity, the AP reports. "You can't claim diplomatic immunity if you don't have it, and you can't use that as an excuse to jeopardize the public or commit crimes," police chief Dominick Rivetti says. There's only one problem: the $10 million rental home where Al Thani was staying has been cleaned out, and police don't know where he or his cars are; he reportedly left the country. It likely wouldn't matter anyway, as police can't charge anyone unless they can prove that person was actually behind the wheel, which they haven't been able to in this case. (This driver made headlines for his fast loop around Manhattan.)

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