Skateboarder Decio Lourenco's popularity is soaring thanks to his starring role in a YouTube video that shows him hurtling down a steep mountain road at 68 mph to set off a speed camera. Now the cops in South Africa are after Lourenco for what presumably amounts to reckless driving.
"We've handed over the matter to traffic officials and want him arrested," JP Smith, the Cape Town official in charge of safety and security, told Reuters on Thursday. "The speed limit is irrelevant. He is seen careening down the road in a reckless and dangerous manner."
The video, titled, "Spoofing the Traffic Camera--Longboarding without Limits," has garnered more than 212,000 views since it was uploaded on Jan. 26.
It shows the skateboarder, clad in short pants but wearing gloves and a helmet, beginning his run atop an uncrowded road, in sparse sunlight. He quickly gains speed and becomes streamlined by crouching and placing his arms behind his back, as cars on the opposite lane whiz by with headlights on.
Toward the bottom of his run, in a more crowded city setting, Lourenco raises his arms triumphantly, after a GPS unit strapped to his foot revealed that he had clocked 110 kilometers, or 68 mph, in a 60-kilometer zone.
The road in question is Kloof Nek, one of the steepest in Cape Town, and long popular among skateboarders.
As for the local skate community, it did not seem pleased to learn that the police were trying to track down one of the country's most well-known riders.
States a post on South Africa's National Skate Collective Facebook page: "The city is trying to shut us down. They want to arrest one of our own, Decio! What do you think we should do? Mass Action? More meetings? Keep hiding from the cops?"
Of course, if Lourenco is arrested and garners headlines, he's likely to become even more famous and beloved.
Longboarder Sets Off Speed Camera @ 68 MPH
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