What was a teenage dream car turned into a nightmarish disaster. Kachina Village, Arizona teen Mitchell Mohler Jr, had struck a deal with his father wherein Mitchell Jr. would shovel snow (as much snow as could be found in Arizona) and doing other jobs to raise several thousand dollars. As part of the agreement, his father, Mitchell Senior, matched his son’s earnings and together they purchased a restored ’80 Corvette for $12,900. Unfortunately, Mitchell’s dream Corvette was quickly dashed when the car was stolen from a car show, involved in a police chase, and crashed on Route 66.

“He was so proud driving the car for the first time,” Mohler Sr. said. The family taken the Corvette to the Route 66 Days vintage car show downtown Saturday. There, the suspect, Michael A Burwell, was spotted “casing” the Corvette as it sat on a trailer. Apparently, as the Mohler family walked away from the car to tour the show, Burwell took the keys from the car hauler, jumped into the red Corvette and sped off east down Route 66 into heavy traffic.

The police were alerted, but due to the heavy traffic, a full pursuit was deemed “too dangerous” according to Flagstaff police policy. Despite the congestion, Burwell was speeding past a Nissan-Subaru dealership when he lost control and collided into two pedestrians before hitting a retaining wall at the dealership. Consequently, the Corvette burst into flames.

Police had to pull Burwell from the Corvette and attend to the two injured pedestrians, according to police reports. A Flagstaff Fire Department unit arrived to put out the flames. The two pedestrians were taken to Flagstaff Medical Center and according to the police, both are expected to recover from their injuries.

Unfortunately for the Mohler family, the Corvette had yet to be fully insured.

Burwell was booked on a list of charges beginning with stealing the Corvette and ending with hitting the pedestrians with plenty of violations in between.