PENSACOLA, FL — What may be the slowest police pursuit in the history of Escambia County unfolded Wednesday afternoon when a 41-year-old man rode a stolen Walmart motorized shopping cart down Davis Highway for approximately 1.3 miles before being apprehended outside a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

Dennis Wayne Pudget allegedly commandeered the electric cart from the Walmart Supercenter on North Davis Highway at around 2:15 p.m. Witnesses say he loaded the basket with a 12-pack of Mountain Dew and a rotisserie chicken — neither of which he paid for — before driving the cart straight out the front entrance and onto the public roadway.

The Slowest Chase in the Panhandle

Responding officers activated their lights and sirens but were forced to idle behind Pudget at walking speed as he puttered south in the bicycle lane, occasionally waving at honking motorists. Dash cam footage shows Pudget looking over his shoulder at the cruiser, shrugging, and continuing at the cart’s top speed of roughly four miles per hour.

“He just kept going. We were behind him for like twenty minutes. At one point he stopped to eat a chicken leg. I radioed dispatch and asked if I should just get out and walk. They said yes.” — Officer Brett Kendall, Pensacola PD

The pursuit ended when the cart’s battery died in the Popeyes parking lot. Pudget reportedly looked at the Popeyes sign, then at his half-eaten Walmart chicken, and said, “Honestly, this worked out.”

Pudget was booked into Escambia County Jail on charges of grand theft, retail theft, and obstruction of traffic. His booking page on JailReport.lol currently holds the number-two spot on the site’s trending page. Bond has been set at $3,000. The motorized cart has been returned to Walmart, though management reports the battery has not been the same since.