Cyclist hitches a ride on passing Jeep

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — You probably remember that scene in Back to the Future when Marty McFly is riding his skateboard and hitches a ride on a passing car to get away from the bully? Well one man in Wilmington pulled a similar stunt, except while riding a bicycle.

In real life, there are consequences for those actions.

“I really thought I was about to see someone die in front of me,” said Tammy Craig, a woman who saw the scene unfold while driving home from dinner Tuesday night. “I see this guy on a bicycle, he’s looking around, looking around behind him and then I see him move his bike over closer to this jeep and he just grabbed hold of it. ”

She said she thought he would just ride the car across the intersection, but the cyclist held on.

“It was very frightening from my perspective,” Craig said.

Her dashcam caught the whole thing on camera. She said her biggest concern during it all was safety.

“I was just really really worried he was going to lose control. I thought his bicycle is going to flip up and crash into my windshield,” Craig said.

It turns out this type of action is more than just alarming to other drivers. It’s illegal.

“As a police officer, if I had witnessed this sort of activity going on, vehicle moving at a high rate of speed, bicyclist attached to the car, I would charge the driver with careless and reckless operation operation of a motor vehicle and the bicyclist as well,” said officer Brandon Chisholm with WPD.

Officer Chisholm said that if the driver was unaware that the cyclist was attached to the vehicle they would not necessarily be charged, but a traffic stop investigation would need to be done first.

Craig said at some point the Jeep was going about 50 miles per hour. She said she is just thankful no on was hurt.